Balancing of Overdamped Virtual Pendulums: Universal Properties of Human Control

Abstract

The results of experiments on balancing a virtual inverted pendulum with over-damped dynamics are reported. Three types of pendulum, namely, an inverted stick, a triangle pendulum, and a vibrating spring were used in experiments and subjects of different age, gender, and skill of balancing participated in these experiments. It is demonstrated that the main characteristics of human balancing under the analyzed conditions, in particular, the phase portraits and the distribution functions of the pendulum angle and the angular velocity are universal in form. Only the characteristic scales depend on the subject features and the difficulty of balancing.