Workload and Performance Analyses with Haptic and Visually-Guided Training in a Dynamic Motor Skill Task

Abstract This chapter presents the implementation of a progressive haptic guid-ance scheme for training in a dynamic motor skill acquisition task similar to some dynamic surgical tasks. The training is administered in a haptic and visual virtual environment. The results of the task training protocol concurrently compare the per-formance and workload of the proposed haptic guidance scheme to a similar visual guidance scheme and to virtual practice with no guidance. The human-user training protocol lasted eleven sessions over a two-month period. The computerized version of the NASA Task Load Index (TLX) was administered to all participants during each session, thereby providing subjective workload data across the entire protocol. The analysis of the experimental results demonstrate that only early in the protocol, the progressive haptic guidance group outperforms all other groups. The workload analysis suggests that participants using the proposed haptic scheme have a signifi-cantly lower mental load and report less frustration than the others. These findings can be transferred to other virtual training environments used for surgical task train-ing.