Ergonomics plays a vital role in the motorcycle design process for effective user-centered design towards successful, marketable products (motorcycles). The ergonomics of the motorcycles are evaluated using Digital Human Modelling (DHM) tools, which are commercially available (like CATIA, Jack, SANTOS, etc.) (Cucinotta et al., 2019; Tony et al., 2020). These DHM tools facilitate a designer to rapidly simulate and visualize the results for
further improvements and design approvals. These tools aid the anthropometrics and range of motion (ROM) measurements in the human model (called manikin) for an ergonomics analysis like compatibility and comfort of a motorcyclist. Therefore, the database pertaining to anthropometry and ROM of the targeted user population is essential to develop manikins to be used in the design process of the motorcycle.
Currently, few anthropometrics databases of motorcyclists exist as published research papers.
To the best of our knowledge, no ROM database has been established for motorcyclists.
However, few motorcyclist anthropometrics studies were reported from the UK (Robertson and Minter, 1996) and Nigeria (Lawrence, 2013).
Although car drivers population are higher than the motorcyclist in global, higher motorcyclist are there in Southern Asian countries (Gastner et al., 2018). Among the South Asian countries, India has a higher number of motorcyclist population when compared with other automotive users (SIAM, 2018). The reason for the high motorcycle users in low-middle-income countries like India could be the cost of affordability. Although India has a large number of motorcyclists, comprehensive anthropometric and ROM databases have not been established for Indian motorcyclists. However, some Indian anthropometric studies (Kulkarni et al., 2011;
Shamasundara and Ogale, 1999) reported a mixed survey of the motorcycle, car, and truck driver population. Amrutkar and Rajhans (2011) performed an anthropometric study on 70 adult motorcyclists (aged 18 to 25 years) from Pune city of India. Since most of the potential anthropometric variables were missing, these surveys may not be applicable and useful for considering an anthropometry database for a motorcycle design process.
The aforementioned studies did not specify the exact number of male and female motorcyclists.
Moreover, they did not provide due importance to male motorcyclists (92% of Indian motorcycle license holders are men; Government of India, 2018) when developing anthropometric databases for Indian drivers of two- or four-wheelers. Although significant efforts were put forth by the researchers conducting field experiments, these studies missed presenting a comprehensive database (all required dimensions) of male motorcyclist’s ROM and anthropometric measurements. The aforementioned studies collected measured different sets of variables; thus, no uniformity was maintained in these studies. Therefore, numerous times, it was not feasible to compare this database with other databases. These anthropometric surveys lack in justifying the relevance of variables considered, i.e., every survey considered their own set of variables according to their articulation of interest. Hence, the
comprehensiveness of these databases is questionable. Consequently, motorcycle designers have to use the Indian general-population database (Chakrabarti, 1997) to design motorcycles for the Indian market.
Developing comprehensive general-population databases are important for any country to prepare estimates and analyse the social and economic development, quality of healthcare and daily living. Most national governments sponsor creating such databases for their own country by funding through research and education schemes. It is noteworthy that the development of these databases come at a cost proportional to population size and incurs huge financial burden, time, and manpower. Developing an anthropometric and biomechanical database for a specific area (motorcycle design) in highly populated countries like India involves potential risk of relevancy, population coverage, and accuracy. Also, it would be a redundant database unless there is any substantial difference between a specific group (drivers/motorcyclists) and general population. Therefore, before moving forward to develop such detailed anthropometric and biomechanical database, the present study should be considered as preliminary research. It proposes the need for such a database.
Studies (Cucinotta et al., 2019; Robertson and Minter, 1996) have indicated that the establishment of anthropometric and ROM databases is essential for evaluating the ergonomics of motorcycle design. Application of general-population data in the design of specific target groups (male Indian motorcyclists) may arise several ergonomic issues like body-parts discomforts, musculoskeletal disorders,etc. (Dawal et al., 2015; Kolekar and Rajhans, 2011).
Moreover, applying anthropometric and ROM data from other countries during the design of motorcycles for Indian riders might lead to dimensional (mis)match (Chakrabarti, 1997).
The reported anthropometry studies of Indian motorcyclists suggest that these may be inadequate/ inappropriate in terms of design and ergonomics aspects. Besides, there may be a difference between general-population and the motorcyclist population (Robertson and Minter, 1996). Since the reported literature on both anthropometry and ROM database is very rare in the Indian context, it is very difficult to identify the most potential anthropometric and/ or ROM variables which could be used in developing CAD human models (manikins) during the process of design and development of a motorcycle. Hence, the present study aims at answering the following two research questions (RQ):
RQ2: What are the key anthropometric and ROM variables that define the physical characteristics of Indian male motorcyclists?
RQ3: What is the percentage difference of anthropometric and ROM variables between the Indian male motorcyclists and other international/ national databases (motorcyclist/ driver and the general Indian population)?
3.2 Methods and Materials
