IMPROVEMENTS IN ABC PEDAL SYSTEM IN AUTOMOBILE Gogulamudi Venkateswara Reddy a , Janga Sree Harsha Reddy and Ullas Kumar TM Mechanical Department/Machine Design Section, Indian Institute of Technology Chennai, Chennai, India. Email: a venkat.gogul@gmail.com The design research in this paper is improvements of present ABC (Acceleration, Brake, and Clutch) pedal systems in automobiles for better driver comfort and safety. Principles of product design concepts are used to analyze the level of comforts and discomforts for the present ABC pedal system and to improve its performance. Customers survey has been done to gather the information from different customers to explore the real problems in using the ABC pedals. Customer needs are prioritized using Kano analysis and FAST analysis is applied to understand the functionalities of each component. To set the goals and targets (QFD) Quality function deployment is used.The research question addressed in this paper is to minimize the time and force required to operate the ABC pedals. Intuitive and logical methods are used to develope six different concepts and are evaluated by using the weighted decision matrix and infeasible concepts are eliminated. From weighted decision matrix it was observed that integration of brake pedal to the steering wheel leaving two pedals beneath the feet for clutch and accelerator satisfies the customer requirements in a better way when compared to other concepts. Keywords: ABC-Acceleration Brake Clutch, FAST-Function Analysis and Statistical Technique, QFD-Quality Function Deployment, SAE-Society of Automotive Engineers. 1. INTRODUCTION We have followed the basic product design procedure to understand the requirements, definition of the problem, analysis, synthesis, concept design and then optimization of concepts for ABC pedal systems of the car for better safety and comfort to the driver. 1.1. Problem Statement • Most of the four wheelers use the conventional ABC (Acceleration, Brake, and Clutch) pedals, which needs more pedal force. • At the time of accident there is every chance to misinterpret the position of pedals. • There is no flexible mechanism for operating the ABC pedals. • More leg force is required to apply ABC pedals, which leads to knee and ankle problems in long run to the drivers. Research into Design — Supporting Sustainable Product Development. Edited by Amaresh Chakrabarti Copyright © 2011 Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India :: Published by Research Publishing ISBN: 978-981-08-7721-7