The Role of Variability in Human-Machine Interaction Experience

2026-08-11

AI Summary

This study addresses a key limitation in traditional human-robot shared control: the neglect of natural human movement variability, which often degrades interaction quality and task performance. To overcome this, the authors propose a novel shared optimal controller that explicitly models and incorporates human behavioral variability into the control policy design. The approach is systematically evaluated through haptic interaction experiments comparing three distinct control modes. Results demonstrate that the control mode preserving natural human variability significantly enhances users’ perceived interaction quality while maintaining high task performance. These findings underscore the method’s innovative contribution in effectively balancing usability and efficiency in shared autonomy systems.

Abstract

Human-machine interaction (HMI) requires control strategies that account for the nature of human motor behavior. Conventional shared-control and haptic-assistance methods typically ignore the stochastic nature of human behavior, potentially limiting both performance and human interaction experience. In this study, we designed an experimental setting and evaluated a novel human-variability-aware optimal controller. Participants performed a physically coupled haptic interaction task in three conditions: a controller mode that aims at conventionally reducing overall variability, a variability-aware controller mode designed to maintain human natural variability patterns, and a human-only control condition serving as a baseline. We analyzed behavioral variability, task performance, and human interaction experience. The results show that considering natural movement variability significantly increased perceived interaction quality in terms of usability while maintaining task performance. These findings highlight the importance of incorporating stochastic human movement characteristics into shared-control designs and demonstrate the feasibility and benefits of the proposed control strategy for human-centered control design of HMI.

Problem

• human-machine interaction
• motor variability
• shared control
• haptic assistance
• stochastic behavior

Innovation

• human variability
• shared control
• haptic interaction
• stochastic behavior
• human-centered design