2023 Volume 23 Issue 4 Pages 296-303
In this study, we examined the psychological stress experienced by occupants in a vehicle cabin owing to seat vibrations. First, we measured the seat and each occupant's vibration during an idle state and assessed the temporal change of the occupants' center of gravity, as well as their electroencephalography (EEG) results. The vibration of the occupant and that of the seat with the occupant differed, and the transfer path of the vibration from the seat to the occupant varied depending on the physical characteristics of the occupant. We propose a hypothesis for the relationship between the psychological stress caused by seat vibration and the characteristics of the temporal change in the center of gravity. This hypothesis states that the occupant experiences psychological stress owing to seat vibration in the idle state when the power spectral density (PSD) of the temporal change in the occupant's center of gravity has a distinct peak at approximately 2 Hz. This hypothesis was tested with 20 subjects (participants), confirming its validity. It was inferred that occupants whose temporal change in the center of gravity was periodic tended to experience psychological stress owing to seat vibration.
