Characteristics of the human operator in simple manual control systems

Abstract

The characteristics of simple pursuit and compensatory manual control systems were measured with, a family of gaussian input signals having power-density spectra that covered a range of bandwidths, center frequencies, and some variety of shapes. The experimental results, presented in the form of graphs, show the nature of the dependence of human operator characteristics upon input-signal characteristics. The superiority of pursuit systems over compensatory systems is clearly demonstrated. Simple analytic models that approximate these measured results are derived for both systems. The compensatory model is highly developed and relations among its parameters and those of the input have been obtained. The pursuit model is not so well developed and only approximate relations among its parameters and the input parameters have been found. The measured results and the analytic models together provide a description of manual control systems that should be useful in design of control systems.