As airlines seek to extend the number of ultra-longhaul flights, and as more aircraft capable of flying farther are delivered, the wellbeing effects of sitting in the same place for perhaps twenty-four hours will grow as an issue for airlines and for passengers. Comfort Motion Global (CMG) believes its Healthy Motion Seating actuation software — shortlisted for this year’s Crystal Cabin Awards — is a potential solution.
Runway Girl Network spoke extensively at the recent RedCabin Asia summit in Tokyo with CMG’s Paul Phipps (chief medical officer and director of research & development) and Jeffrey Calkins (business development) about Healthy Motion Seating, which seems like it might be one of those rare solutions to a problem that bring few inherent drawbacks with them.
In essence, the concept adds software that activates the electrical movement actuators of a seat in tiny micro-motions to change slightly, almost imperceptibly, the body’s sitting position. CMG describes this slow movement, a fraction of the speed of regular actuation movement, as like “melting butter”, the idea is to make these small changes (of around one degree of recline) to periodically adjust the position in which the passenger’s body is bearing the weight load. As the position shifts, the location of the pressure points on the passenger’s body shifts as well, improving the overall experience and the negative effects on the passenger’s body.
The issue that Healthy Motion Seating is trying to solve is that sitting in one position for too long is generally unhealthy. With the limited range of motion on the aircraft, even in some business class seats, there is a real opportunity to improve our overall wellbeing on board. Shifting the way we sit, recline and relax — in taxi-takeoff-landing and “lazy-Z” positions — even slightly can avoid much of the physical fatigue and commensurate health issues with sitting for prolonged periods, according to CMG.
Healthy Motion Seating is implemented entirely via software, inside the seat control module contained within premium seats that have electrical actuation, meaning no additional weight for what might looks likely to be a substantial perceived comfort improvement.
A recent study in conjunction with the UK’s Cardiff Metropolitan University and Sydney’s Macquarie University in Australia — simulating a 6.5-hour flight with and without the Healthy Motion Seating software activated — showed notable benefits to simulated passengers’ muscle fatigue, blood flow, perceived tiredness, mood, pain and discomfort.
CMG’s study worked with two universities and simulated a 6.5-hour flight. Image: CMG
Notably, the overall increase in discomfort from sitting for that length of time decreased by nearly a quarter in the seat with Healthy Motion Seating activated — and this from a relatively young cohort of study test subjects, ranging from 19–73 years of age with a mean of 36.
This suggests increased benefits for older travellers, who are more subject to aches and pains, and indeed more likely to reflect the passenger mix within premium cabins.
The target market will generally be first class, flatbed or electrically reclined business class, and the rare electrically reclined premium economy or domestic first/narrowbody business seat. Inherently, of course, the benefits will be greater on longhaul aircraft than on shorthaul aircraft.
Live testing is underway on a Thompson Aero Seating VantageXL staggered business class seat using Astonics PGA actuators, the company says, with demonstrations completed on two seat suppliers’ products.
Healthy Motion Seating is being tested on Thompson’s VantageXL platform. Image: Thompson Aero Seating
The technology launched in the automotive sector with Mercedes-Benz, where it went fleetwide in 2022, and on the forthcoming Bentley Bentayga. For aviation applications, the company expects there to be little to no impact in terms of seat certification requirements, with the main issues for further study around the additional motion cycles of the micro-movements that the software drives.
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Featured image credited to Thompson Aero Seating
