Validation of Effectiveness of Posture Change by Changing Back Support Position on Driving Fatigue Increase Mitigation

Reducing driver’s fatigue during long time driving has been a major theme for us as a seat maker. We have focused on a back support mechanism which influences driver’s posture. We predicted that drivers’fatigue levelwould change in accordance with the change of back support position. During the study we measured not only fatigue reduction effect but also muscle activity along with support position change. Through examining the correlation between the data, the driver’s optimum support position was expected to be found out. As a result of conducting driving test by driving simulator to measure driver’s fatigue level by biologicalinformation and having subjective assessment, it was found that change of driver’s back support position caused a difference in fatigue reduction effect: when the driver’s fatigue level was low, there was less muscle activity.