Effects of Preview on Human Control Behavior in Tracking Tasks With Various Controlled Elements
Kasper van der El (TU Delft - Control & Simulation)
D.M. Pool (TU Delft - Control & Simulation)
MM van Paassen (TU Delft - Control & Simulation)
M Mulder (TU Delft - Control & Simulation, TU Delft - Control & Operations)
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Abstract
This paper investigates how humans use a previewed target trajectory for control in tracking tasks with various controlled element dynamics. The human's hypothesized "near" and "far" control mechanisms are first analyzed offline in simulations with a quasi-linear model. Second, human control behavior is quantified by fitting the same model to measurements from a human-in-the-loop experiment, where subjects tracked identical target trajectories with a pursuit and a preview display, each with gain, single-, and double-integrator controlled element dynamics. Results show that target-tracking performance improves with preview, primarily due to the far-viewpoint response, which allows humans to cancel their own and the controlled element's lags, without additional control activity. The near-viewpoint response yields better target tracking at higher frequencies, but requires substantially more control activity. The control-theoretic approach adopted in this paper provides unique quantitative insights into human use of preview, which can help to explain human behavior observed in other preview control tasks, like driving.