Using Human Dynamics to Improve Operator Performance

Technological Innovation for Sustainability

2011

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The human operator is, no doubt, the most complex and variable element of a Mechatronics system. On simpler manual control tasks, a linear model may be used to capture the human dynamics, however experiences on human operator response during pursuit manual tracking tasks, show that the dynamics of the human operator appear to depend on the specific task that the subject is asked to perform. This means that a unique truly human model cannot be completely achieved. Rather, a different set of models, each for a certain class of task, seems to be needed. This ongoing PhD work introduces several approaches on the human operator dynamic characteristic modeling and identification procedures, which may be useful for developing improved "humetronic" systems, i.e. human-machine systems which may be able to adapt themselves to the skill level of humans, aiming, with reduced effort, to achieve for best performance and safety.

“…Frequency analysis experimental procedures and results fall beyond the size of this paper, and were already described in detail in previous work [11], [12].…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Linear Approach towards Modeling Human Behavior

Technological Innovation for Sustainability

2011

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“…The idea that lies beneath this work is to find the simplest model possible that, despite its simplicity, still can capture enough information of human's behavior [10].…”

Section: Human Behavior Modelingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Human-machine control model approach to enhance operator skills

2010 International Conference on Mechanical and Electrical Technology

2010

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In what concerns human-machine interaction, two main driving forces are performance and usability. In systems where the human operator integrates the control loop (HILhuman in the loop) one wishes to minimize its effort and fatigue, without compromising the performance.The paper proposes a design approach where the influence of the operator dynamics in the closed loop is taken into account, by means of dynamic compensation. A frequency analysis based procedure is used to obtain an operator model from experimental data.The human-machine model is used to synthesize a LQG based dynamic compensator which significantly improves the performance while reducing the operator effort.

“…By adopting this approach, the human-machine MIMO system may be modeled from two independent linear transfer functions, leading to a diagonal state-space dynamic matrix pattern. Each axis input-output transfer function can then be experimentally obtained from several pursuit manual tracking experiments, using the frequency analysis methods already developed in previous work [13] , [14], [15].…”

Section: The Human-machine Modeling Strategymentioning

confidence: 99%

Improving Operator Performance through the Use of a Multivariable Human-Machine Control Strategy

Technological Innovation for Value Creation

2012

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Most of the mechatronics equipments and gadgets that we all nowadays rely on incorporate some kind of multidimensional human-machine systems. There is an increasing concern for improving the usability, performance, ergonomics and safety of such devices, and ultimately this will lead to the mass-production of next-generation intelligent machines, which will be capable to assist the human operator and to reduce the global effort by estimating and measuring its skills. This ongoing work introduces a novel human-machine multi-dynamic modeling methodology which can be applied on the development of these Human Adaptive Mechatronic (HAM) machines, able to adapt to the skill/dexterity levels of its users, and to enhance Human's proficiency. As a new strategy for model development, a number of twodimensional independent pursuit manual tracking experiments are evaluated. A human-machine state-space linear model is obtained and successfully applied to design an improved closed-loop multivariable control structure.