ABSTRACT
Designing a new vehicle is generally accomplished by using the systems engineering approach, which involves creating an organization of design teams involving different disciplines. The teams are also colocated at one site or in one building so that they can meet formally and informally to communicate about numerous issues and trade-offs related to interfaces between various systems and subsystems in the vehicle. The ergonomics engineers assigned to the vehicle program follow the vehicle development from its earliest stages of de›ning the vehicle concept until the vehicle is produced and used by the customers. During each stage of development, the ergonomics engineers conduct a number of tasks to assure that the vehicle being designed will be perceived by its customers to be ergonomically superior. In this chapter, we will review the following: (a) the goal of the ergonomics engineer, (b) methods used to achieve the goal, (c) evaluation measures used, (d) the responsibilities of the ergonomics engineers, and (e) their problems and challenges.
