Efficiency analysis in a collaborative task with reciprocal haptic feedback

Although it is reported in the literature that haptic feedback leads to improved performance in kinesthetic collaborative tasks, it has not been investigated so far whether this advantage is accompanied by a higher physical workload. This paper is an initial effort to examine efficiency in haptic interaction: We relate physical effort to a performance outcome in a virtual pursuit tracking task. An experimental study is conducted to compare efficiency in a collaborative mutual haptic feedback condition to three control conditions, where participants either acted alone or collaboratively without haptic feedback from the partner. Results show that reciprocal haptic feedback does not improve efficiency, although participants' performance was generally improved when doing the task with a partner, relative to executing it alone. This is due to the greater effort associated with physical connection between partners. However, the effort is more fairly distributed between partners when haptic feedback from the partner is provided. Haptic feedback may be more efficient when the amount of necessary communication between partners increases compared to the task studied here.