An Investigation of Vibration Feedthrough and Feedthrough Cancellation in Joystick Controlled Vehicles

Abstract

The inertial and applied forces acting on operators of joystick controlled machinery in moving vehicles can produce unintentional control signals through the joystick. These forces tend to deteriorate continuous tracking performance and further, when the machinery in control is the vehicle itself, they may lead to unstable oscillations that jeopardize that vehicle’s safe operation. In this paper, we propose the use of a force-reflecting joystick and a model-based controller to cancel the effects of inertia forces. Using a simple physical model of human biomechanics, we experimentally investigate the effectiveness of a cancellation controller in stabilizing a driving task. A second experiment involving a human subject on board a motion base investigates the ability of the cancellation controller to improve performance in a continuous tracking task. Results indicate that the cancellation controller enhances stability and improves tracking.