Research on the comfortable and maximum pedaling forces of Chinese population

With the fast development of the automotive designs, auto manufacturers have paid more and more attention to the comfort driving in recent years. Driving pedaling forces, referring to the forces exerted by the drivers on the brake, clutch, and accelerator pedals when they are driving cars, are ergonomic evaluation indices of human-vehicle interaction. Nowadays, there are few researches on the pedal comfort of the Chinese population. Therefore, this paper aims to study the Chinese drivers’ pedaling force data and the factors influencing on it. The experiment facilities were designed to measure the pedaling forces. The research showed that: (1) The dissatisfaction of drivers with the brake pedal is much more than that with clutch, and accelerator pedal, from the view of pedaling forces. (2) The pedaling forces of the subjects show the basic normal distribution. (3) The gender difference has little impact on the comfortable pedaling forces, but there is remarkable difference on the maximum pedaling force acceptable between male and female. (4) The angle of elbow flexion joint has no significant influence on the comfortable pedaling forces, but with the increase of the elbow joint, the maximum pedaling forces acceptable declines.