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bioRxiv · 10.1101/2022.06.29.498180

Evaluating a Human/Machine Interface with Redundant Motor Modalities for Trajectory-Tracking

Chou, A. H. Y.·Yamagami, M.·Burden, S. A.
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Abstract

In human/machine interfaces (HMI), humans can interact with dynamic machines through a variety of sensory and motor modalities. Redundant motor modalities are known to have advantages in both human sensorimotor control and human-computer interaction: motor redundancy in sensorimotor control provides abundant solutions to achieve tasks; and incorporating diverse features from different modalities has improved the performance of movement-, gesture-, and brain-controlled computer interfaces. Our objective is to investigate whether redundant motor modalities enhance performance for a continuous trajectory-tracking task. We designed a multimodal human/machine interface with combined manual (joystick) and muscle (surface electromyography, sEMG) inputs and evaluated its closed-loop performance for tracking trajectories through second-order machine dynamics. In a human subjects experiment with 15 participants, we found that the multimodal interface outperformed the manual-only interface while performing comparably to the muscle-only interface; and that the multimodal interface enabled users to coordinate individual modalities to attenuate noise. Multimodal human/machine interfaces could be beneficial in systems that require stability and robustness against perturbations such as motor rehabilitation and robotic manipulation.

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Chou, A. H. Y., Yamagami, M., Burden, S. A.. 2022-07-04. Evaluating a Human/Machine Interface with Redundant Motor Modalities for Trajectory-Tracking. https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.06.29.498180

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