Ford Uses RUTH Robot To Quantify Interior Comfort

I've never really sat back and thought about how you could realistically and repeatedly determine how comfortable the interior of a vehicle is. Sure you can sit in one car, then sit in another, and come up with an arbitrary decision that one is more comfortable than the other is. However, if you want hard data to prove scientifically just how comfortable things are between two vehicle interiors, how exactly would you pull that off?

Ford has a scientific method of measuring vehicle interior comfort, and the automaker does this with an interesting robot dubbed RUTH. RUTH stands for Robotized Unit for Tactility and Haptics. The robot looks a lot like the ones you see welding on the assembly line in a Ford factory. The robot uses mathematical evidence to prove that the interior in a Ford vehicle is comfortable, and that Ford is capable of reproducing the same level of fit, finish, and comfort on vehicles it produces.

The robot can determine that the feel of the trim and the touch of the buttons inside the car are just right. Ford says that it uses RUTH to ensure that the interiors of designs are comfortable feel correct down to how the buttons feel when pressed. RUTH is a giant robotic arm with six joints that is programmed to poke interior trim, turn the knobs, push buttons, and interact with the vehicle's interior areas just like a person would. Check out the video to learn more about RUTH and how Ford uses the robot to ensure its vehicle interiors are perfect.