ABSTRACT
Optimization of body armor is desired to ensure that military personnel are provided with the most advanced, state-of-the art protection available. Part of the goal in optimizing body armor is to improve the fit and contour of the body armor, while maintaining the required area of protective coverage. Although current body armor systems have been developed to accommodate both sexes, the impression from female warfighters is that they are not optimally accommodated. Several efforts are underway by the US Army to redesign ballistic body armor to better fit males and female warfighters, thereby improving protection, maneuverability, and comfort. The goal of the current effort is to characterize meaningful size and shape variation in the female torso to aid in the development of ballistic armor design forms. A geometric method employing Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was applied to three-dimensional torso scans from the Joint Strike Fighter female subsample (JSF CAESAR, https://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML">n=722https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9780429061943/2c936423-cf77-45da-a819-2deb9400929a/content/eq233.tif" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"/>, Hudson et al. 2003) of the CAESAR (Civilian American European Surface Anthropometry Resource) database. The torsos were aligned to an anatomical coordinate system defined by their superior iliac spine 160landmarks (anterior and posterior), cervicale, and suprasternale. Four hundred and fourteen vectors (spaced regularly around the vertical axis at nineteen vertical levels) were generated from the anatomical origin outward to the torso scan surface. PCA was applied to the vector distances representing the anterior torso (217 vectors) resulting in three unique components which explain more than https://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML">70%https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9780429061943/2c936423-cf77-45da-a819-2deb9400929a/content/eq234.tif" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"/> of the total variance. Using this three principal component solution, cases were plotted in the multivariate distribution which defined the torso shapes for generating prototype torso forms for armor design.
