Serbian and Libyan Anthropometric Measurements Data in Contemporary Systems’ Design

It is known that the study of the interactions of a person and a machine in a system, in terms of its improvement and further adjustments in order to improve the efficiency of functioning, reduce fatigue, preserve human health and ensure optimum working environment, is still a challenge for constructors as well as other experts who deal with this problem. In contemporary contexts it is even more important is to provide equal consideration of the human along with the hardware and software in the technical and technical management processes for developing systems that will optimize total system performance and minimize total ownership costs. The aim of this paper is to compare Serbian and Libyan anthropometric measurements, such as foot length, standing height, sitting height, lower leg length, upper leg length, shoulder width, hip breadth, arm length and body weight, on the basis of samples of 1197 Serbians and 400 Libyans which have been collected. Further statistical analysis have been conducted to explore the effect of large mixed data on the anthropometric measurements, and their patterns, which facilitates the interior space design of vehicles and cabins used by both males and females, in order to establish a model that could be fit to multi-users. Descriptive statistics includes sample sizes, means, medians, minimal and maximal values with their ranges, coefficient of variation and Kolmogorov test for normality. Since all measurements were parametric, this enabled conducting the linear regression and correlation analysis, which include coefficient of correlations, coefficients of determination, as well as significance of regression and correlations. In order to compare anthropometric measurements between different nationalities, for all examined groups of participants, the Z tests for difference of means were conducted between Serbian and Libyan samples. The correlation results show that the measurements of the sample for the Serbian population have more statistically significant correlations than the Libyan sample has. Serbian sample have significant differences only in three measurements while there were reverse results for the Libyan sample. The arm length and lower leg length have no significant differences in either samples, and the standing height in both samples have an absolute difference (p value =0). Absolute, significant differences were found between all compared anthropometric measurements at a significance level of p<0.001. Body weight showed a strong significance difference at level of p<0.01 (p-value=0.0052) while shoulder width had no significant difference (p-value=0.3132). The mean and median values and z test results show that the Serbian sample has higher values than the Libyan sample, excluding for shoulder width which has very close values. Since the compatibility of the anthropometric characteristics of the driver/operator of the vehicle and/or machinery with other space dimensions, as well as the dimensions and position of the equipment in the cabin, directly affects the user from the aspect of comfort, health and working ability, results of this study could be useful for its designers in aim to influence the performance, productivity and financial losses as well as safety performance, in a very broad scope.