This paper presents a sequel to research by two of the present authors published in 1998. In conditions of increasingly tough competition in the market, there is an increasing need to adjust automobiles to anthropomeasures. For the Yugoslav population the construction dimension of automobiles from floor to roof should be at least 1250 mm. Additional adjustment to meet the latest anthropomeasures of drivers should make it possible for the seat to slide backwards by up to 300 mm and to be linearly lowered by 131 mm (with an angle of 23.6° for the seat's complete shifting without backrest or the seat's seating part inclination change).

The result of anthrometrical limitations is, among other things, the usual construction of passenger automobiles for a range from a 5th-percentile woman to a 95th-percentile man driver, determining the position and adjustability (movement) of the seat, the position and angle of the windscreen, and the torso of the driver. Anthropometrical changes, especially the form of the stochastic normal function for the division of certain measures in Serbia and possibly at the global level, influence the increase in all anthropometrical values but also influence the difference between the measurements for the 5th-percentile woman and the 95th-percentile man driver, for which range the passenger automobile is usually adjusted. On the other hand, this leads to difficulties and the impossibility of normal use of the steering wheel with the hands of a small 5th-percentile aged woman because they are too near, and also the 95th-percentile aged man driver, because they are too far. Therefore, the usual design of the steering wheel for a total 50th-percentile hermaphrodite (man—woman) is no longer sustainable, but the tip of the steering-wheel shaft should also be adjusted to suit a certain range, until a more acceptable technical solution is found.

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This study shows that the automobile is still not well enough adapted for human beings, especially in the part of the interior where the foot controls are located. When designing passenger vehicles ergonomically, the anthropometric limitations are as important as the technical limitations. Moreover, exacting contemporary economic and ecological requirements mean that the interior of the standard passenger vehicle must be designed to reduce front surface and air resistance to a minimum. The present authors offer a new method for designing the part of the interior of standard passenger vehicles where the foot controls are located as an indivisible part of the whole interior, with interrelated functional links using anthropometric limitations. These vary according to region and country and change with time. This study uses anthropometric data for drivers from Serbia from 1976 to 2007. The objective was, taking into account vehicle interior height limitations, to accommodate the largest range of anthropometric dimensions, from the fifth-percentile woman to the 95th-percentile man, which was accomplished using a new method for model accommodation optimization. Furthermore, comfort and a safe steering position are assured. The existence of the O point is required as the origin of a coordinate system with x, y, and z axes for the man-vehicle system and this enables the mechanical and mathematical functions to be defined more accurately within the system. By applying the suggested method and processing the data acquired, an optimum space for foot controls was obtained. The space for foot control location lies horizontally along the x axis forward from the O point by 320 mm and vertically along the z axis by 230 mm. The space height along the z axis is 465 mm. The space is determined in four segments by the anthropomeasures of the foot of the 95th-percentile man and the fifth-percentile woman, first starting from the floor line to the point (2320 mm, 230 mm). Also, it is determined by the height of 465 mm of the 95th-percentile man to the point (50 mm, 465 mm), when the space as far as the lower half of the windshield glass is defined by the fifth-percentile woman. In this way, a larger space is needed for seating of the fifth-percentile woman than would be needed if only the 95th-percentile man were seated.

This paper discusses a new way of modelling the width of the space that accommodates the drivers of passenger vehicles. The fact that there is a more or less fixed zero point, which is the origin of the coordinates of the man-vehicle system makes it possible to determine the mechanical–mathematical co-dependence in this system more accurately. The space is determined by taking extreme pairs of the dimensions and a series of anthropometric measurements to which the vehicle needs to be adjusted as the measurement limits. These were determined by analysis which includes both the theory of mechanisms and vehicle mechanics. In this way the method of adapting the vehicle to accommodate a range from the 5th-percentile woman to the 95th-percentile man has finally been surpassed. The paper demonstrates a methodology for designing the interior space of a passenger vehicle based on the fact that, in a range of anthropometric measurements of equal total lengths, each measurement has segments of different lengths, because people with the same leg lengths have different upper-and lower-leg lengths. Therefore the interior space of the vehicle is designed to accommodate extreme measurements and to allow for limitations caused by movement and the physical laws derived from seeing the anthropometric measurement mechanism as a mechanical mechanism. The paper offers a design for the space behind the windscreen, the position of the steering wheel, and the position of the foot controls together with the total space which the driver occupies, primarily from the aspect of anthropometric limitations, concluding that the maximum width for accommodation of the driver at the lowest level of a seat along the x axis is 169 mm, and along the y axis is 1013 mm.