The anthropometric data for Taiwanese female military personnel

Anthropometric data are essential and important for product/equipment design, especially for the weapon systems and personal devices. Though several anthropometric databases for general Taiwan populace have been built, there is still a lack of an anthropometric database for the Taiwan military. In addition, with the increasing numbers of female military personnel in Taiwan, the anthropometric data for them becomes more and more important and urgent. Therefore, the aim of this paper is first to define anthropometric dimensions and second to collect the anthropometric data for female military personnel in Taiwan by means of both 3D scanner and manual methods. Three specified postures including two standing and one sitting were used to collect 105 dimensions from 108 female military personnel. These 105 dimensions included 35 heights, 12 breadths, 21 lengths, 24 circumferences, and 13 dimensions derived from sitting posture. The results showed that there're differences among Taiwanese female military personnel and Taiwanese female civilian and US female military personnel. Taiwanese female military personnel were taller and sturdier than civilian. The heights of Taiwanese and US female military personnel are approximate, but US female military personnel are sturdier. That is, using other researches' anthropometric data to design military clothing and equipment is not appropriate, and to build an anthropometric database for Taiwan military is quite important.