Abstract
We discuss a new optimal control model for human arm's via-point movements from the viewpoint that human arm's reaching movements are produced based on the cooperative relation between the human vision system and the arm control mechanism. The cooperative relation is clarified by deriving two kinds of reaction time of the eye-movement and arm control mechanisms during two-point reaching movements and via-point movements. Consequently, the following results were obtained: (1) for the two-point reaching movements, the reaction time for the eye-movement mechanism was shorter than that for the arm control mechanism; (2) for the via-point movements, the relation of reaction time between the two mechanisms was the same as in the result (1) in the two kinds of half movements divided by the via-point. These mean that the human vision system acquires the position information of the via-point and the target through its eye-movement, and the arm moves after the eye-movement. The results suggest the possibility of a successive two-point reaching movement model that successively reproduces two kinds of two-point reaching movements divided by the via-point.
