Abstract
Subjective evaluation of riding comfort during ambulance transportation is discussed. Putting on the brake during ambulance transport generates foot-to-head acceleration of the patient for several seconds and causes the rise of the blood pressure at his head. Moreover, frequent change of the foot-to-head acceleration will cause motion sickness and vomiting in some cases. There is, therefore, a possibility that foot-to-head acceleration aggravates the patient's condition. Rapid acceleration and sudden stop are frequently performed to evaluate subjects' riding comfort by using semantic differential method. A conventional stretcher and an actively controlled stretcher which absorbs the foot-to-head acceleration by changing the angle of the stretcher and adding the gravity to the patient are used. The experimental results show that the riding comfort of the ACS is better than that of the conventional stretcher.
