Embodied Supervision: Haptic Display of Automation Command to Improve Supervisory Performance

A human operator using a manual control interface has ready access to their own command signal, both by efference copy and proprioception. In contrast, a human supervisor typically relies on visual information alone. We propose supplying a supervisor with a copy of the operator’s command signal, hypothesizing improved performance, especially when that copy is provided through haptic display. We experimentally compared haptic with visual access to the command signal, quantifying the performance of N=10 participants attempting to determine which of three reference signals was being tracked by an operator. Results indicate an improved accuracy in identifying the tracked target when haptic display was available relative to visual display alone. We conjecture the benefit follows from the relationship of haptics to the supervisor’s own experience, perhaps muscle memory, as an operator.