Haptic aided ergonomic evaluation in mass customized product design

Abstract

Under the pressure of market competition, there is a tendency for product developers to change their strategy from mass production to mass customization. Ergonomics is an important concern in a successful product development. Ergonomic satisfaction should be one of the variants in mass customization. However, ergonomics factor is not emphasized as strongly as visual factors, such as shape, color, texture, etc. One of the reasons is that ergonomic characteristics are difficult to be presented to the end users in contrast to those visual properties. This paper highlights the role of ergonomics in the product design for mass customization and provides an approach to customer oriented ergonomic evaluation by introducing haptic rendering techniques. With a force feedback device, coupled with a visual feedback device - display, consumers can evaluate not only the form of the product, but also the physical properties, such as stiffness and tactile feel before they make a customized decision. Through cases studies, a prototype platform of haptic aided ergonomic evaluation for mass customized product design is demonstrated.