Manual Control Laboratory

Abstract

The manual control laboratory is a collection of human performance tasks chosen to illustrate principles of control theory. These tasks include a dynamics demo that illustrates the open loop response characteristics of different dynamic systems. This demo allows the user to simultaneously view the output for three systems. The dynamics for each system can be specified independently. Thus, the response characteristics can be directly observed and compared. A target acquisition task is used to illustrate modeling in the time domain. Feedback is provided in terms of time histories and state space trajectories. Modeling in the frequency domain is illustrated using a continuous, sum-of-sines tracking task. Performance assessment is provided in terms of power spectra and bode plots. The critical tracking (or Jex task) is used to illustrate the logic of root locus analysis. Across the tasks, variables that can be adjusted include gain, time delay, order of control, and the type of display logic (quickened or unquickened).

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Crossman

E.R.F.W.

Goodeve

P.J.

(1963) Feedback control of hand movement and Fitts' Law. Paper presented at the meeting of the Experimental Psychology Society, Oxford, July 1963. (Published in Quarterly Journal of Psychology, 1983, 35A, 251–278.).

Fitts

P.M.

Peterson

J.R.

(1964). Information capacity of discrete motor responses. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 67, 103–112.

Flach

J.M.

(1990). Control with an eye for perception: Precursors to an active psychophysics. Ecological Psychology, 2(2), 83–111.

Jex

H. R.

McDonnell

J.P.

Phatak

A.V.

(1966). A “critical” tracking task for manual control research. IEEE Transactions on Human Factors in Electronics, HFE-7, No. 4: 494–503.

Kleinman

D.L.

Baron

Levison

W.H.

(1970). An optimal control model of human response. Part 1: Theory and validation. Automatica, 6, 357–569.

McRuer

D.T.

Jex

H.R.

(1967). A review of quasi-linear pilot models. IEEE Transactions on Human Factors in Electronics, HFE-8(3), 231–249.

Wickens

C.D.

(1984). Engineering Psychology and Human Performance. Columbus, OH: Merrill.

Wickens

C.D.

(1986). The effects of control dynamics on performance. In Boff

K.R.

Kaufman

Thomas

J.P.

(Eds.). Handbook of Perception and Human Performance, Vol. II (pp. 39.1–39.60), New York: Wiley.