Development of a three-dimensional body shape model of young children for child restraint design

Abstract

The design of child restraints is guided in part by anthropometric data describing the distributions of body dimensions of children. However, three-dimensional body shape data have not been available for children younger than three years of age. This study presents body shape models for children weighing 9–23 kg in a seated posture relevant to child restraint design. A laboratory study collected surface geometry data of 67 children, ages 12–58 months. Novel template fitting methods were employed to obtain homologous meshes and to standardize the posture. Principal component analysis and regression were used to develop a statistical body shape model (SBSM). The SBSM was exercised to create 18 manikins representing children aged 1–3 years, with varying size and shape. These manikins will be useful for assessing child accommodation in restraints. The SBSM can also provide guidance for the development of anthropomorphic test devices and computational models of child occupants.

KEYWORDS:

• Child anthropometry
• seated body shape
• statistical body shape model
• parametric modelling
• child restraint system
• ATD

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Dr. Han K. Kim for his substantial contributions to the method development and template fitting.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Funding

This project was funded by the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) under cooperative agreement with the University of Michigan [Cooperative Agreement# DTNH22-10-H-00288]. The opinions expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of NHTSA.