Methodology of Digital Firearm Ergonomic Design

This paper describes a methodological human centered approach during handgun design. For evaluation of reach distances to handgun controls (trigger, slide stop, magazine catch) a digital human models and ergonomic software were used. With these digital hu

  • PDF / 222,847 Bytes
  • 10 Pages / 439.37 x 666.142 pts Page_size
  • 89 Downloads / 211 Views

DOWNLOAD

REPORT


Abstract This paper describes a methodological human centered approach during handgun design. For evaluation of reach distances to handgun controls (trigger, slide stop, magazine catch) a digital human models and ergonomic software were used. With these digital human models a variety of minimal, maximal and average reach distance for Americans, Europeans and Asians were proposed. Distances for American and European population were used for creation of a handgun functional sample. Test shooting performed with this functional sample was evaluated by a questionnaire which was filled by 18 male members of armed forces. These responses evaluated the suitability of functional sample and identified specific parameters for future improvement.



Keywords Handgun Digital human models Grips Virtual models



 Specific populations  Ranges 

1 Introduction Each tool used by a man need to be suitable for use and also designed in the way that doesn’t endanger the user. The product ergonomics is the field that deals with those issues. This paper is mainly focuses on the field of firearms especially handguns. Mainly armed forces (army, police, etc.) come into contact with guns M. Bures (&)  T. Görner  A. Miller  M. Kaba Department of Industrial Engineering and Management, University of West Bohemia, Univerzitni 8, 30614 Pilsen, Czech Republic e-mail: [email protected] T. Görner e-mail: [email protected] A. Miller e-mail: [email protected] M. Kaba e-mail: [email protected] © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2017 M. Soares et al. (eds.), Advances in Ergonomics Modeling, Usability & Special Populations, Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing 486, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-41685-4_20

221

222

M. Bures et al.

nearly every day. For this reason these weapons must be adapted to fit in the hand in the best way. Also the firearms must be maximally reliable during shooting. There are several areas of firearm design that have been the subject of previous researches. Hancock et al. [1] discussed the issues in firearms design. They stated that the need for ergonomics firearm improvement has never been greater. Among their observations, trigger pull, hand grips, sighting devices, and safeties are among the critical components of firearms whose ergonomics have not been studied, nor have their interfaces been standardized. Previous studies regarding shooting performance have focused mainly on postural stability and its impact on shooting accuracy [2–5]. Several researchers investigated the effect of rifle length and weight on shooter stability. The concept of weight reduction in rifle design has long been emphasized. Larger aiming fluctuations occur with heavier rifles because heavier rifle weight increases upper extremity loading, which increases the center of pressure fluctuation of the shooter-rifle system in the transverse axis [6]. In addition, Kemnitz et al. [7] examined the effects of gender, rifle stock length (17.8, 22.3, and 26.2 cm), and rifle weight (3.2 vs. 3.8 kg) on military marksmanship performance. There were no sign