The Use of Digital Human Modeling to Assess Vision Obstruction in Airport Taxi Operations

The operation of ground support vehicles in busy airport taxiways and runways is a growing concern, especially when the driver does not have an adequate field of view (FoV). Airport ground vehicle accidents due to vision obstruction have resulted in loss of revenue, injuries, and fatalities. The research presented in this paper examines and quantifies vision obstruction in airport ground support vehicles using an early design methodology based on digital human modeling (DHM). The methodology is presented through investigating two case studies based on actual airport accidents influenced by vision obstruction, involving pushback tractors and an aircraft refueling truck. Each study comprises three-dimensional (3D) computer-aided design (CAD) models of the vehicles and four DHM manikins with varying anthropometries. Obstruction-causing vehicle elements are identified, and then the CAD models are redesigned to improve the driver’s forward FoV. Results from this study show that DHM can facilitate a proactive design approach by pinpointing potential hazards in the design of ground vehicles by retrofitting changes during early-phase design via digital models to reduce the risk of driver vision obstruction.