Use of Force-Feedback Joysticks to Promote Teamwork in Virtual Teleoperation

Abstract

Force feedback about fellow team-member control actions was evaluated as a means to improve team coordination and performance in virtual teleoperation. Each member of a two-person team received continuous force feedback about the other team- member's joystick control movements. In Study 1 (N=22 teams), participants worked in parallel to control vertical and horizontal forces exerted on a simulated inertial object. Although force feedback improved joystick coordination between participants, teleoperation performance worsened. In Study 2 (N=24 teams) where participants instead had direct control over horizontal and vertical position of a cursor, force feedback improved both joystick coordination and teleoperation performance. Performance impairment in Study 1 may be explained by the visual feedback of inertial movements being asynchronous to the social force feedback. These findings suggest force feedback about team member control actions can benefit team coordination and performance during virtual teleoperation only if it is synchronous with feedback about system response.