Modeling Visuo-Motor Control and Guidance Functions in Remote-Control Operation

A large class of human movements rely on the so-called hand-eye coordination for precise and versatile performance. Teleoperation of agile robotic systems in three dimensional environments would benefit from a detailed understanding of the perceptual control mechanisms used by the operator both for the design of operator interfaces and potentially for the use of gaze information as part of the control mechanism. The objective of this work is to model the role and contribution of the operator's gaze motion in remote control operation of an agile vehicle. The experiments were conducted using a miniature remote controlled helicopter. The overall human-machine system is described using a multi-loop manual control model. Experiments were designed and conducted to exercise different aspects of this control hierarchy, encompassing stabilization and regulation as well as trajectory tracking and goal directed guidance. The sensing requirements for each loop are established by investigating the relationship between the operator's visual gaze trajectories, the vehicle trajectories, and the control actions. Visual gaze data is classified according to the typical smooth pursuit, saccades and fixations and then incorporated into an estimation strategy.