Multidisciplinary development of new door and seat concepts as part of an ergonomic ingress/egress support system

Today mechatronic systems are essential for automotive technology. Since their use satisfies the customers’ wishes for more comfort and safety there is great potential for new developments. Therefore five institutes of the Technische Universität München in collaboration with the BMW Group work on a multidisciplinary project which is part of the cooperation CAR@TUM. Based on the example of a support system that reduces the discomfort, which occurs during ingress/egress, the scope of the project is the improvement of mechatronic systems and the development processes deployed. As constraints and input for the technical realisation in the different fields of development (kinematics, sensorics, and virtual prototyping), ergonomic investigations are conducted. For the generation of the needed ergonomic information a method to measure arising discomfort is built up. By use of this information and in reference to the scenario of narrow parking situations, door kinematics allowing multiple situation-dependent opening paths are developed. By combining mechanics (kinematics elements), a control unit and ambiance information generated by sensors possible collisions with collateral obstacles can be avoided. The door can be opened situation-dependently to provide optimal room for ingress/egress. Sensors are additionally used to detect an approaching car driver as a basis to personalised preadjustments of the vehicle door path or the seat. The door mechanisms proposed and their actuation are evaluated via user studies by, amongst other things, use of a force-feedback controlled virtual reality system. Based on the experiences with the development of the presented system a generic process and associated methods/tools to support the multidisciplinary development of mechatronic products are designed.     «

Today mechatronic systems are essential for automotive technology. Since their use satisfies the customers’ wishes for more comfort and safety there is great potential for new developments. Therefore five institutes of the Technische Universität München in collaboration with the BMW Group work on a multidisciplinary project which is part of the cooperation CAR@TUM. Based on the example of a support system that reduces the discomfort, which occurs during ingress/egress, the scope of the project i...     »