Control-theoretic model of haptic human-human interaction in a pursuit tracking task

Achieving natural and intuitive interaction is one of the main challenges in physical human-robot interaction. We approach this challenge by modeling haptic human-human interaction with the final goal of transferring found relationships to human-robot interaction. The focus of this paper is on two human operators performing collaboratively a joint object manipulation, i.e. a pursuit tracking task. McRuer's crossover model is a well established method to describe the behavior of one human operator performing such a task. In this paper, we extent McRuer's approach to two human operators performing the task collaboratively. Results based on experimetally gained data show that the interacting partners adapt their behavior to each other and to the task in such a way that the crossover model can still be applied to the interacting dyad. It is also shown that the individual's behavior changes when interacting with a partner in contrast to performing the task alone.