Seating system solution for the very light car

Capstone Applied Research, CAR, an interdisciplinary student research and design group at Sweet Briar College was tasked to design the seating system in Edison2 Incorporated´s The Very Light Car Version 4.0 (VLC v4.0). The VLC v4.0 is a commercially viable prototype based on the winning Progressive Auto Insurance X Prize High Mileage Competition version that seeks to create a cost effective and environmentally sound alternative to main stream vehicles. The seating system design had to meet the needs of a family vehicle while still maintaining the constraints imposed by the car´s overall design goals which included, but were not limited to, weight, size, orientation, and cost. Other relevant considerations included functionality, consumer appeal, structural integrity, federal safety regulation adherence, mass production feasibility, economical practicability, and ergononmical considerations. Given the wide array of possible solution variants in the final design an evaluation process modeled after the Pahl & Beitz evaluation method was used to determine which combination of these variants would meet all design constraints and best fulfill the design goals.