Factors Affecting Human Operator's Controlling Performance on the Steering System (I)

In the Case of Stationary Preview Pursuit Tracking Behavior by the Steering Wheel

Abstract

The positioning required in operations of farm machinery is one of the most fundamental motion. In clarifying the human controllability of positioning, the performance of tracking task to sinusoidal inputs was investigated in the preview control system of pursuit tracking behavior including the controlled element of proportional action. The operator individuality factor and the effect of input properties were studied on responses in steady state tracking tasks.
The results of the experimental study led to the following conclusions.
1) Tracking error was affected significantly by the amplitude and the frequency of sinusoidal inputs. The smaller the input amplitude and the lower the input frequency were, the smaller was the mean absolute error of tracking task.
2) The input property had considerable effects upon the stablity of responses in steady state tracking tasks. The smaller the input amplitude and the lower the input frequency were, the smaller was the standard deviation of cyclic average of mean absolute error.
3) The variation power of tracking error increased in proportion to the input amplitude and was affected by the input frequency.
4) The distributions of the error power spectral density in tracking tasks showed the peak pattern at the input frequency. The variation power of tracking error was dependent on the error power component which was based on the phase shift at the input frequency.
5) As the input frequency increased, the peak value of the normalized error power spectral density decreased and the rate of error power component based on the phase shift to the variation power of tracking error decreased.
6) On the steady state responses like the sinusoidal tracking, the tracking performance was affected significantly by the input property.