Shared and cooperative movement control of intelligent technical systems: Sketch of the design space of haptic-multimodal coupling between operator, co-automation, base system and environment

Abstract

This paper sketches the concept of haptic-multimodal coupling between operator, coautomation, base system and environment. Haptic-multimodal couplings use mainly the haptic interaction resource, e.g. the combination of hands and feet with active inceptors like active sidesticks or steering wheels, and complement this with e.g. visual and acoustic feedback. Haptic-multimodal couplings can serve as a base for shared control, and, if the co-automation has a minimum of understanding of and reactivity to the human operator, for a cooperative control between operator and automation. The paper gives a brief introduction of shared and cooperative control, starting with examples in the non-technical world, and sketches the basic structure the couplings and coupling schemes. While much of the design space is yet to be explored and described more systematically, some combinations of haptic-multimodal couplings can already be applied, e.g. to the cooperative control of an intelligent ground vehicle or in telerobotics. The paper briefly describes examples of an automation-initiated de-coupling of a driver and of a helicopter pilot in case of an emergency maneuver, and the coupling between an operator and a satellite control for a berthing maneuver.