Experimental performance evaluation of a haptic training simulation system

In this paper the performance of a dual-user haptic simulation system with a proposed shared control architecture is experimentally evaluated for a specific trajectory following task under different operating conditions. The multilateral control architecture developed for training purposes, allows interaction between both users, the trainee and the trainer, as well as between the users and the virtual slave robot in a shared environment. The performance of the architecture is evaluated experimentally in terms of the effect of environment point of view, environment mushiness, and the existence of virtual fixtures. The performance is measured against task completion time, the path following accuracy and energy exchange by the trainer and the trainee.