The experimental results of a study of multivariable manual control systems with relay-control switches when a human operator is placed in compensatory tracking tasks are presented. The relay-control switches are compared with (1) linear control sticks, (2) linear control sticks with dead zone, and (3) relay-control switches generating pulses of constant width. From the experiments, following results are obtained:
(i) By using relay-control switches, a human operator not only counts the number of pulses, but also adjusts the pulse-width to get better control performances.
(ii) For a certain high-order controlled element requiring lead compensation, the control performance is improved by using the controllers (controls) by which a human operator easily keeps the manipulated variables zero.
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