title: The impact of haptic feedback quality on the performance of teleoperated assembly tasks.
abstract: In teleoperation, haptic feedback allows the human operator to touch the remote environment. Yet, it is only partially understood to what extent the quality of haptic feedback contributes to human-in-the-loop task performance. This paper presents a human factors experiment in which teleoperated task performance and control effort are assessed for a typical (dis-)assembly task in a hard-to-hard environment, well known to the operator. Subjects are provided with four levels of haptic feedback quality: no haptic feedback, low-frequency haptic feedback, combined low- and high-frequency haptic feedback, and the best possible-a natural spectrum of haptic feedback in a direct-controlled equivalent of the task. Four generalized fundamental subtasks are identified, namely: 1) free-space movement, 2) contact transition, 3) constrained translational, and 4) constrained rotational tasks. The results show that overall task performance and control effort are primarily improved by providing low-frequency haptic feedback (specifically by improvements in constrained translational and constrained rotational tasks), while further haptic feedback quality improvements yield only marginal performance increases and control effort decreases, even if a full natural spectrum of haptic feedback is provided.
authors.forename: J G W
authors.initials: JG
authors.lastname: Wildenbeest
authors.forename: D A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Abbink
authors.forename: C J M
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Heemskerk
authors.forename: F C T
authors.initials: FC
authors.lastname: van der Helm
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Boessenkool
mesh_terms: D056228:Feedback, Sensory; D006801:Humans; D019060:Minimally Invasive Surgical Procedures / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods; D009068:Movement; D065287:Robotic Surgical Procedures / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods; D012371:Robotics / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D014110:Touch; D014584:User-Computer Interface