Haptic-Based Training for Tank Gunnery Using Decoupled Motion Control

For training human motor skills, haptic guidance has proven more effective than traditional visual-feedback-only approaches. However, novices might become dependent on the feedback force provided during training and become unable to adapt to real operating environments. To overcome haptic-based training's limitations, a proposed approach uses decoupled motion control, which divides a motion into individual coordinate axis movements controlled by multiple operators. Using a networked haptic interaction system, the trainee cooperates with an expert to complete a training task. Unlike previous approaches, the force or torque exerted by the trainee's device doesn't directly correct the trainee's hand action. Instead, the trainee regulates his or her manipulation to cooperate with the expert by feeling motion feedback from the expert. The Web extra at http://youtu.be/qYBsR6AOjzQ is a video that shows a test subject operating a training simulator for tank gunnery that uses haptics. © 1981-2012 IEEE.