Analysis and evaluation method for a human motion skill proficiency for human-robot cooperative positioning task

The purpose of this study is to investigate proficiency process of a human motion skill for the robot operation and a relationship between the activity level of the higher brain function and the human-robot cooperative positioning operation in which mechanical positioning supports assist operator's motion with a 1-DOF linear track robot. In this study, to reveal the proficiency process for the robot operation under the impedance control, a quantitative evaluation analyzing both time-normalized trajectories of operator's motion and the activity level of the higher brain function is carried out. Using the time-normalized trajectories, the quantitative evaluation can be carried out among several experimental conditions and data obtained from various operators and trials. Experiments were conducted to elucidate the relationship between the proficiency process for the robot operation and the activity level of the higher brain function. In the experiments, different three types of mechanical positioning supports are introduced to reduce operator's work load and to increase positioning accuracy in the positioning cooperative task between the human and the impedance-controlled robot. The introduced mechanical positioning supports in this paper are as following: i) active positioning support utilizing additional force; ii) passive positioning support using a variable viscosity; iii) frictional positioning support by Coulomb-like virtual friction. In addition, the activity level of the higher brain function in the experiments was measured using NIRS measurement system. The experimental results show that the relationship between the activity level of the higher brain function and the proficiency process for the robot operation on the human-robot cooperative positioning task is observed. © 2013 The Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers.