Abstract
An active servo-system was used to change the stiffness of a manipulandum used in a positioncontrol pursuit-tracking task. The elastic stiffness of the manipulandum connected to the forearm was set by a computer at one of five levels ranging from 0 N/m to 2000 N/m. Subjects were required to track, either by moving their forearm or by generating a force isometrically, a visually presented target whose position changed randomly every second for 100 s. Nonparametric and parametric impulse response functions were calculated between the input (target) and output (force or position) in each tracking condition, and revealed that for all subjects force control was faster than position control when the stiffness of the manipulandum was set at 0 N/m. Subjects were also consistently faster in reaching the target when the stiffness was greater than zero, and were more accurate (steadystate response) when the stiffness of the manipulandum was set at lower rather than higher amplitudes. The parametric impulse response functions revealed that the human operator system was underdamped (0.7) with a natural frequency of approximately 8 rad/s. These findings were interpreted in terms of the responses of the various subsystems (visual, cognitive, contractile, limb mechanics) that comprise the human operator's response.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Allen RW, McRuer D (1979) The man/machine control interface — pursuit control. Automatica 15:683–686
Baty DL (1969) Effects of display gain on human operator information processing rate in a rate control tracking task. IEEE Trans Man Mach Syst 10:123–131
Beatty J (1975) Applications of Wiener kernel analysis in psychology. The problem of manual control. In: McCann GD, Marmarelis PZ (eds) Proceedings of the first symposium on testing and identification of nonlinear systems, pp 339–352
Bigland-Ritchie B, Cafarelli E, Vollestad NK (1986) Fatigue of submaximal static contractions. Acta Physiol Scand 128:137–148
Cracco RQ, Cracco JB (1978) Visual evoked potential in man: early oscillatory potentials. EEG Clin Neurophysiol 45:731–739
Doubler JA, Childress DS (1984) An analysis of extended physiological proprioception as a prosthesis-control technique. J Rehab Res Devel 21:5–18
Elkind JL, Sprague LT (1961) Transmission of information in simple manual control systems. IRE Trans Hum Fact Electron 2:58–60
Genadry WF, Kearney RE, Hunter IW (1988) Dynamic relationship between EMG and torque at the human ankle: variation with contraction level and modulation. Med Biol Eng Comput 26:489–496
Hammerton M (1981) Tracking. In: Holding D (ed) Human skills. Wiley, New York, pp 177–201
Hammerton M, Tickner AH (1966) An investigation into the comparative suitability of forearm, hand, and thumb controls in acquisition tasks. Ergonomics 9:125–130
Hill JW (1970) A describing function analysis of tracking performance using two tactile displays. IEEE Trans Man-Mach Syst 11:92–101
Howland D, Noble ME (1953) The effect of physical constants of a control on tracking performance. J Exp Psychol 46:353–360
Hunter IW, Kearney RE (1983a) Generation of random sequences with jointly specified probability and autocorrelation functions. Biol Cybern 47:141–146
Hunter IW, Kearney RE (1983b) Two-sided linear filter identification. Med Biol Eng Comput 21:203–209
Hunter IW, Kearney RE (1984) NEXUS: a computer language for physiological systems and signal analysis. Comput Biol Med 14:385–401
Hunter IW, Kearney RE, Jones LA (1987) Estimation of the conduction velocity of muscle action potentials using phase and impulse response function techniques. Med Biol Eng Comput 25:121–126
Jaeger RJ, Agarwal GC, Gottlieb GL (1980) Predictor operator in pursuit and compensatory tracking. Hum Fact 22:497–506
Jones LA, Hunter IW (1982) Force sensation in isometric contractions: relative force effect. Brain Res 244:186–189
Jones LA, Hunter IW (1990) A perceptual analysis of stiffness. Exp Brain Res 79:150–156
McRuer D (1980) Human dynamics in man-machine systems. Automatica 16:237–253
McRuer D, Krendel ES (1974) Mathematical models of human pilot behavior. AGARDograph 188
Merhav SJ, Ben Ya'acov O (1976) Control augmentation and work load reduction by kinesthetic information from the manipulator. IEEE Trans Syst Man Cybern 6:825–835
Mesplay KP, Childress DS (1988) Capacity of the human operator to move joints as control inputs to prostheses. ASME Model Control Issues Biomech Syst 12:17–25
Miall RC, Weir DJ, Stein JF (1985) Visuomotor tracking with delayed visual feedback. Neuroscience 16:511–520
Mirchandani PB (1972) An auditory display in a dual-axis tracking task. IEEE Trans Syst Man Cybern 2:375–380
Neilson PD (1972) Speed of response or bandwidth of voluntary system controlling elbow position in intact man. Med Biol Eng 10:450–459
Nobel M, Fitts PM, Warren CE (1955) The frequency response of skilled subjects in a pursuit tracking task. J Exp Psychol 49:249–256
Pew RW, Duffendack JC, Fensch LK (1967) Sine-wave tracking revisited. IEEE Trans Hum Factors Electron 8:130–134
Porter R (1987) Functional studies of motor cortex. In: Ciba Foundation Symposium 132, Motor areas of the cerebral cortex. Wiley, Chichester, pp 83–97
Posner MI (1978) Chronometric explorations of mind. Erlbaum, Hillsdale
Poulton EC (1974) Tracking skill and manual control. Academic Press, New York
Seeley HF, Bliss JC (1966) Compensatory tracking with visual and tactile displays. IEEE Trans Hum Fact Electron 7:84–90
Sheridan TB, Ferrell WR (1974) Man-machine systems. MIT Press, Cambridge
Sperling G, Dosher BA (1986) Strategy and optimization in human information processing. In: Boff K, Kaufman L, Thomas J (eds) Handbook of human perception and perfromance, vol 1. Wiley, New York, pp 2–1–2–65
Soechting JF, Roberts WJ (1975) Transfer characteristics between EMG activity and muscle tension under isometric conditions in man. J Physiol (Paris) 70:779–793
Takashima M, Yoshizawa S, Nagumo J (1980) Human operator dynamics in manual tracking systems with auditory input. Biol Cybern 37:159–166
Weiss PL, Hunter IW, Kearney RE (1988) Human ankle stiffness over the full range of muscle activation levels. J Biomech 21:539–544
Wickens CD (1986) The effects of control dynamics on performance. In: Boff K, Kaufman L, Thomas J (eds) Handbook of human perception and performance, vol 2. Wiley, New York, pp 39–1–39–60
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Jones, L.A., Hunter, I.W. Influence of the mechanical properties of a manipulandum on human operator dynamics. Biol. Cybern. 62, 299–307 (1990). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00201444
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00201444