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Optimization of formula SAE

ergonomics based on CAITA

Yunbin Wu

Yunbin Wu, "Optimization of formula SAE ergonomics based on CAITA," Proc.

SPIE 12244, 2nd International Conference on Mechanical, Electronics, and
Electrical and Automation Control (METMS 2022), 122440C (25 April 2022);
doi: 10.1117/12.2634870

Event: 2nd International Conference on Mechanical, Electronics, and

Electrical and Automation Control (METMS 2022), 2022, Guilin, China

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 Optimization of Formula SAE ergonomics based on CAITA
Yunbin Wu1
1
School of Automotive Engineering, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan, Hubei Province,
430070, China
*
Corresponding author’s e-mail: [email protected]

ABSTRACT

FSAE is a race in which the driver controls the car, so ergonomic design is crucial to the driver's driving experience. This
paper takes the blade racing car of Wuhan University of Technology Formula E racing team (WUTE) as the background,
carries on the simulation analysis to the ergonomics of racing car. The real human body data of racers are collected and
the model is established. The ergonomic design and analysis module of CATIA software is used to establish the human-
machine relationship with the human body model as a reference. The relative relations of single shell, seat, steering wheel
and pedal are established to determine the human body posture and visual field. Constantly adjust and verify important
rules, and finally get the appropriate man-machine relationship as the criterion of racing design.
Keywords: ergonomic design, CATIA, FSAE

1. INTRODUCTION
Formula SAE (Held by automotive Engineering Society) is an automobile design and manufacturing competition
organized by students from universities majoring in automotive engineering or related disciplines [1].
In recent years, scholars at home and abroad have applied advanced technologies such as computer-aided design and
human body model simulation analysis to the study of cab adaptability based on man-machine engineering theory [2]. Yijia
Wang [3] et al., based on ergonomics, used CATIA to conduct simulation analysis and test design on driver posture, operating
comfort and field of vision. Dongjian Zhang [2] and other scholars studied the ergonomic adaptability of the cockpit of
FSC racing car, mainly establishing the attitude of the model. Shaopeng Li [4] and other scholars verified the instrument
and interaction direction of racing car design in detail. Most of the above studies are designed based on ergonomics. For
FSAE racing cars, the influence of ergonomics position on the vehicle's important parameters is ignored, mainly focusing
on seats, instruments, etc., which has certain limitations and is not completely applicable to the reference of the vehicle
layout.
At present, the existing research on FSAE vehicle layout, general design, or ergonomics almost does not mention the
relationship between ergonomics and the vehicle. Therefore, this paper from the man-machine engineering as the starting
point, the introduction of CATIA simulation, pay attention to man-machine engineering at the same time, the important
parameters of the vehicle has been adjusted and optimized, is committed to improve the rationality of the vehicle design,
bring performance benefits.

2. VEHICLE ESTABLISHMENT OBJECTIVES

Like F1, the design of FSAE racing car is an iterative process, requiring constant and repeated modification of the design
content [2]. When carries on the overall arrangement, must be based on the FSAE competition rules, and based on the layout
methods and car theory, car design and other related knowledge, reference this successive the essence of the design team
and the absorption of other good team's new design, select the key parts and components, determine the car's basic
parameters (size, quality, performance parameters, etc.)As the premise of the subsequent design and simulation calculation,
to prepare for the vehicle modelling, so the reasonable layout of the vehicle is very important.
The main requirements of the rules are as follows:
 The racing style meets the requirements of exposed wheels and open cockpit;
 Wheelbase and wheelbase are in the limited range and meet the relative relationship;
 Basic forms of each subsystem;

2nd International Conference on Mechanical, Electronics, and Electrical and Automation Control (METMS 2022)
edited by Ya Liu, Proc. of SPIE Vol. 12244, 122440C · © 2022 SPIE · 0277-786X · doi: 10.1117/12.2634870

Proc. of SPIE Vol. 12244 122440C-1

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  Ground clearance;
 Body and aerodynamics kit;
 Driver safety and human-computer interaction.
However, in the vehicle layout, the influence of driver's position and the relative position of each system on the vehicle's
centroid and axle-load ratio will bring significant differences in vehicle performance. Therefore, we in the design process,
the first thing to ensure is the attitude of the driver and driving experience, and then to consider the vehicle parameters, so
ergonomics design and verification is very important. This team in the man-machine engineering design, the core idea is
to make sure the driver has a comfortable, efficient, accurate feedback driving experience, we will all parts related to the
drivers' driving as a team the man-machine engineering design research object, mainly including instrument information
interaction, steering, brake pedal, seating posture, visual field, etc., to generate a comprehensive evaluation system, as
shown in figure 1, To achieve our design goals.

Figure 1. Comprehensive evaluation of FSAE racing ergonomics.

3. FSAE ERGONOMIC DESIGN

Ergonomics is a multidisciplinary interdisciplinary subject, the core of the study is the coordination of human, machine
and environment in different operations, its basic goal is to design as far as possible to meet the match between the driver
and the car.
3.1. Ergonomics related competition rules and data
According to formula China 2020 rules, the car must be fit for a male driver from the 5th percentile to the 95th percentile.
Male 95th percentile template position and the template head must meet the following requirements:
 Must be at least 50.8mm (2 inches) away from the top of the front ring and the top of the main ring (FIG. 2. a);
 If the diagonal brace of the main ring is placed behind, the distance between the top of the main ring and the bottom
of the diagonal brace of the main ring and the helmet must be at least 50.8mm (FIG. 2. b);

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 Figure 2. Position requirements for anti-roll frame.
Combined with data query and data comparison and analysis, the range of comfortable angles of each joint of FSAE racers
is obtained for reference, as shown in Figure 2.3. Ankle joint A1 is 93°, knee joint A2 is 150°, hip joint A3 is 45°, waist
joint A4 is 15°, trunk joint A5 is 38°, shoulder joint A6 is 9°, elbow joint A7 is 143°, and neck joint A8 is 20° [5], as shown
in Table 1.

Figure 3. Joint Angle and marking

Table 1. FSAE driver's joint comfort Angle

Joints Comfortable Angle / (°) Joints Comfortable Angle / (°)

A1 90~95 A5 32~40
A2 148~162 A6 5~9
A3 42~47 A7 100~125
A4 10~15 A8 5~7
3.2. Drivers’ real data acquisition
By measuring the size of each part of the human body to determine the difference between individuals and groups in the
size of the human body, for the study of human morphological characteristics, so that the design of the product is more
suitable for people. Due to the limitation of moving space, the parameters of moving range are simplified, mainly
measuring the static shape parameters.
In order to facilitate recording and measurement, the measurement items and data are simplified and the sitting position is
taken as the reference standard, as shown in Figure 4:

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 Figure 4. Dimensioning diagram of human sitting posture.
Referring to the above criteria, we measured the required height, upper arm length, forearm length, thigh length, calf length
and other data. The general measurement method was used, and the main measurement tools were body altimeter, Angle
gauge and medical weight scale. Common measurement methods mainly measure the size of human body structure. The
measured data can be combined with manual processing and computer processing. This method is characterized by low
cost but low precision. The measurement results are shown in Table 2.
Table 2. WUTE drivers body data (in mm).

Project A B C D

Height 1770 1750 1750 1780

9 Sitting cubits height 276 272 276 280
10 Sitting eye height 807 799 796 809
11 Sitting height 910 908 906 912
12 Touch point height 1370 1359 1365 1372
13 Forearm plus palm length 257 255 253 259
14 Sitting knee height 497 493 490 495
15 calves high 417 415 414 420
16 Sitting depth 461 458 457 459
17 Hip knee distance 558 556 554 557
18 Sitting legs length 999 996 992 997
Next, the above data are processed. Formula (1) and (2) were used to calculate the mean and standard deviation. 𝑋 is the
average height, and 𝑆 is the standard deviation of height:

1
𝑋 𝑋
𝑛
(1)
Where, n is the number of samples, 𝑋 is the height of samples.

1 /
𝑆 𝑋 𝑛𝑋
𝑛 1 (2)
Percentile refers to a positioning index commonly used in anthropometry. Percentile is calculated by empirical formula [6],
as shown in Equation (3). The size of Chinese adults reflected in the data of GB10000-88 has the characteristics of normal
distribution, so the percentile of human body corresponding to WUTE drivers can be calculated according to Formula 3
and the normal distribution table.
𝑍 𝑋 𝑋 /𝑆 (3)

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 𝑋 is the average height in central China, and 𝑆 is the standard deviation of height in central China. According to the
national standard (GB 10000-1988), 𝑋 = 1669, 𝑆 = 56.3, and Z=1.66. By looking up the normal distribution table, p =
0.9515 was obtained. Since there is no Chinese standard human body model in CATIA software, we used the Taiwan
human body model in it, and according to the data of average height, the percentage P of Taiwan human body corresponding
to WUTE racing driver was 0.8214.
In addition, by comparing the human body model at 82.14 percentile in CATIA software with the human body data of the
team driver, it is found that the error is less than 10%. Considering the measurement technology and the existence of
measurement error, we believe that the model can represent the actual situation of the team driver.

4. APPLICATION OF CATIA MAN-MACHINE MODEL

CATIA V5 is a CAD/CAM software developed by BM/PS based on Windows core. In product design engineering, the
relationship between people, machinery and the working environment can be well solved [7]. CATIA V5 was the first to
propose a solution for human-machine design and analysis. The human body model in its software contains 104 sets of
measured data and more than 100 unconstrained connections, which are often used for visual field analysis, sitting position
analysis and Angle analysis of motion comfort, etc. [8].
4.1. CATIA mannequin adjustment
CATIA was used to put the 82.14% percentile mannequin obtained from the mean data of WUTE drivers into the single
shell designed according to the space and safety requirements of race rules, adjust the attitude, and conduct RULA Analysis
evaluation on it until the attitude of the mannequin was reasonable.
Open the function of "Human Builder" in the module of "Ergonomic Design and Analysis" in CATIA and insert the Human
body model; Then, the position of the inserted mannequin is edited and moved to fit it with the monomer shell. The "Posture
Editor" is used to adjust the torso, limbs and joints of the mannequin. The data of each joint is based on Table 1 to make it
fit the approximate relative position of the monomer shell and other systems, like Figure 5 and Figure 6.

Figure 5. CATIA mannequin posture adjustment. Figure 6. Mannequin posture and position.

4.2. Human model evaluation

After the initial adjustment, the Human body posture was evaluated by using the module of "Human Activity Analysis" in
"Ergonomic Design and Analysis" of CATIA, and the Human body posture was evaluated by using RULA Analysis
function. The results of this Human body model are shown in Figure 7. The current mannequin poses comfortably.

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 Figure 7. RULA Evaluates results. Figure 8. Binocular vision
At the same time, "Open Vision Window" was used to analyse the visual field of the human model to obtain Binocular
Vision (left/right monocular communication), as shown in Figure 8. The clear area in the middle is the intersection of
Binocular Vision, and the translucent area on both sides is the left/right monocular Vision.
It can be seen that the field of vision of our mannequin can be extended along the furthest surface of the single shell, that
is to say, the field of vision closest to the front of the car can be obtained, which is conducive to the driver's understanding
of the following route of the track in advance and a greater response delay fault tolerance rate. The left and right field of
vision can observe the edge of the front wing, which indicates that the driver can clearly and completely see the pile barrel
at the edge of the track during the steering condition, so as to obtain the best driving line.

Figure 9. Critical rule data.

4.3. Verify compliance with race regulations
After setting the position of the model, analysing its field of vision and man-machine comfort evaluation, it was substituted
into the simplified 2d model of the 95th percentile required by the racing regulations, and restrained by the trunk body
frame to determine whether the data and the rules were in line with the racing regulations. Through measurement, the
design can be found to fully meet the requirements of race regulations, and the height of the main ring can be appropriately
reduced, as shown in Figure 9.Then assemble each system, find and solve the interference between each system and each
component.

5. CONCLUSION
In the most important part of FSAE vehicle design, this paper proposes the combination of man-machine engineering
simulation and design, using CATIA software to parameterize the car driver, and adjust the attitude to determine the
location of important data and related components, which can save the position of the car driver in the design stage.
Debugging time and effort of the front ring, main ring, steering wheel, instrument, pedal position and other important
related systems of the vehicle. At the same time, the measured data of the ergonomics of FSAE racing car and the angles
of each joint of human body lying down driving are given in detail, which are applicable to the design requirements of
FSAE racing car, and an effective evaluation system is established to provide the basis for the evaluation of ergonomics.

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 The effective combination of ergonomics and vehicle layout, and macroscopic control of vehicle layout, is of great help to
the vehicle performance.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

From the topic selection to the birth of this paper, teachers and members of the WUTE team can not leave the help and
support, thank them very much!

REFERENCES

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[5] Zhang D, Ma Q, Tao C. (2016) Adaptability of FSC Racing Cab Based on Ergonomics. Journal of Shanghai
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