Evaluation of vibrotactile sensation level for vehicle accelerator pedal vibration considering the sensitivity of the foot sole

Abstract

Vehicle vibrations cause the physical and mental fatigue, thereby degrading the riding comfort. The vehicle accelerator pedal constantly generates vibrations while driving and is in direct contact with the driver. However, relevant studies on the vibration effects of the accelerator pedal have not been sufficiently conducted. This paper presents a method to evaluate the level of vibrotactile sensation perceived by drivers due to the vehicle accelerator pedal vibration and be able to predict riding comfort. Equivalent comfort contours for foot-transmitted vibrations are derived based on the sensitivity of the foot sole measured through vibrotactile sensation tests. With the equivalent comfort contours, weighting filters for three types of vehicles-conventional gasoline, hybrid, and electric-are generated. Then, weighted vibrations representing the vibrotactile sensation level perceived by drivers from the vehicle accelerator pedal are produced by applying the weighting filters to measured vibration data from the accelerator pedal of each vehicle type.