A Boundary Zone Method for the Generation of Multivariate Representative Humanoids

The present study developed a novel multivariate representative humanoid (RH) generation method called the boundary zone method (BZM), which consists of (1) the formation of a boundary zone (BZ) for a designated accommodation percentage (κ), (2) the clustering of anthropometric cases in the BZ, and (3) the selection of representative cases from the clusters. By using 1988 U.S. Army anthropometric data for κ = 90% and 10 anthropometric dimensions, the BZM was compared to existing methods, including the square method (SM), the rectangular method (RM), and the circular method (CM) in terms of multivariate accommodation percentage (MAP), outlier percentage, and normalized outlier magnitude. The MAP analysis showed that only the BZM could form a group of RHs that precisely satisfied the designated κ, whereas the RM formed over-accommodating RH groups and both the SM and CM formed under-accommodating RH groups. The outlier analysis identified that only the BZM generated relevant RHs within the body size ranges of the target population.