Human performance in three-hands tasks.
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Published version
Author(s)
Noccaro, A
Eden, J
Di Pino, G
Formica, D
Burdet, E
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
The successful completion of complex tasks like hanging a picture or laparoscopic surgery requires coordinated motion of more than two limbs. User-controlled supernumerary robotic limbs (SL) have been proposed to bypass the need for coordination with a partner in such tasks. However, neither the capability to control multiple limbs alone relative to collaborative control with partners, nor how that capability varies across different tasks, is well understood. In this work, we present an investigation of tasks requiring three-hands where the foot was used as an additional source of motor commands. We considered: (1) how does simultaneous control of three hands compare to a cooperating dyad; (2) how this relative performance was altered by the existence of constraints emanating from real or virtual physical connections (mechanical constraints) or from cognitive limits (cognitive constraints). It was found that a cooperating dyad outperformed a single user in all scenarios in terms of task score, path efficiency and motion smoothness. However, while the participants were able to reach more targets with increasing mechanical constraints/decreasing number of simultaneous goals, the relative difference in performance between a dyad and a participant performing trimanual activities decreased, suggesting further potential for SLs in this class of scenario.
Date Issued
2021-05-04
Date Acceptance
2021-04-19
Citation
Scientific Reports, 2021, 11 (1), pp.1-8
ISSN
2045-2322
Publisher
Nature Publishing Group
Start Page
1
End Page
8
Journal / Book Title
Scientific Reports
Volume
11
Issue
1
Copyright Statement
© The Author(s) 2021. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
Sponsor
Commission of the European Communities
Commission of the European Communities
Commission of the European Communities
Identifier
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33947906
PII: 10.1038/s41598-021-88862-9
Grant Number
843408
871803
899626
Publication Status
Published
Coverage Spatial
England
Date Publish Online
2021-05-04