Abstract
Methods to assist manual control of positioning a mobile object by braking are discussed. First, aiming at offering a natural feeling of operation, the concept of "time to contact" and its time derivative as cues for self-movement behaviors of animals are adopted from the field of Ecological Psychology. Taking a one-dimensional braking-to-stop task as an example, two types of visual presentation schemes are introduced, in which the latter of or both the above information are displayed directly. Then, simulator experiments have been performed using these methods. The results show that the schemes can improve the accuracy and the steadiness of the operation but cannot change the breaking time significantly. Besides, the methods assume that the displacement from the target is available. Thus, new schemes of visual display and control device characteristics are proposed utilizing the braking-to-stop condition, which are expected to be effective for the operator to control the braking timing and to perform voluntary positioning operation.
