Comfort Evaluation of Operating Position to Define Appropriate Seat Travel in Excavator

Objective: The objective of this study is to evaluate the operating position of excavator operator through virtual assessment and to define appropriate seat travel in excavator. Background: In the case of excavator development, position of primary controllers and seat are most important to determine the operating position. Especially, seat position and adjustment range (Travel) make operator seat where they want to. Operating with comfortable posture reduces fatigue of operator, and improves productivity. Therefore, seat position and adjustment range are first considering point to development of excavator. Method: To define appropriate seat travel: (1) Select representative human model to represent all operators, (2) Define basic operating posture to represent all operating postures, (3) Evaluate comfortability of basic operating postures, (4) Define comfort operating position with respect to each operator’s H-point (Hip point), (5) Define seat position and adjustment range with respect to comfort seating positions for all representative human models. Results: Operating position of each representative human model with comfort is found. And it is possible to define the minimum requirement of seat travel which makes all representative human models seat where they want to. Conclusion: We define basic operating postures in excavator. Through comfort evaluation for basic operating posture, we can find operating positions of each of representative human model. From the position, we can define the minimum requirement of seat travel for all representative human models. Application: This study is expected to be applied in defining seat position and travel range for development of new excavator. And position of primary controller and range of hand movement are defined with comfortable operating position. Also position and direction of gauge panel are defined with considering field of vision of operators.