Determination of Primary Working Area based on Working Comfort

사용 편의성에 기초한 주작업영역의 결정

For efficient operation, vital hand controls must be easily controlled by the operator from his normal working position. The primary working area based on operator's working comfort was developed to serve as a design guideline tothe control panel layout. Ten male subjects participated in the experiment in which working comfort was measured for two controls of a lever type control and a knob type control with respect to the frontal and sagittal distances from the body center and the slope of a workplace. The response surface methodolgy using a central composite design was employed to develop a prediction model for perceived working comfort of each control. Both controls have a similar pattern of comfortable working area, but the lever type control has slightly broader working area. The concept of the proposed working area is a significant extension to the conventional working area such as Farley's or Squires' curves. It is shown that the distance toa control device and the slope have a quadratic effect to working comfort. It is noticeable that comfortable working area exists outside the conventional working area. The result of the response surface analysis also indicated that a little slope of about 15 .deg. for a control panel improves working comfort.