A Linear Approach towards Modeling Human Behavior

The human operator is, no doubt, the most complex and variable element of a Mechatronics system. On simpler manual control tasks, a linear model may be used to capture the human dynamics, however experiences on human operator response during pursuit manual tracking tasks, show that the dynamics of the human operator appear to depend on the specific task that the subject is asked to perform. This means that a unique truly human model cannot be completely achieved. Rather, a different set of models, each for a certain class of task, seems to be needed. This ongoing PhD work introduces several approaches on the human operator dynamic characteristic modeling and identification procedures, which may be useful for developing improved "humetronic" systems, i.e. human-machine systems which may be able to adapt themselves to the skill level of humans, aiming, with reduced effort, to achieve for best performance and safety.