Human Skill Performance to Control an Underactuated Pendulum-Driven Capsule System

This paper investigates human learning and skill performance to control an underactuated pendulum-driven capsule system within an interactive virtual simulation environment. A number of experiments is conducted with 9 participants who learned to control the robot using a physical joystick. The results show differences in learning and skill performance among the participants. Right-handed and left-handed participants achieved their highest trial on the opposite side of their handedness. High learning participant tends to achieve high performance whereas participant who has steady learning tends to produce stable performance either low or high. The variance of the displacements achieved appears to be a learning indicator while the high frequency of joystick oscillation at the right portion and interval gives high performance results.