Design and validation of feedback controller for social motor coordination with time-varying delays

Abstract

Due to the significant effect of time delays on social motor coordination, this work aims to inquire into the coordination mechanism of human joint actions from a control perspective by designing a feedback controller with individual motor signature. Therein the time-varying delay is taken into account to reflect the delay of human motor system in transmitting, processing and analyzing visual signals. By treating individual motor signature as the exogenous signal, it is proved that the coordination model is input-to-state stable. Finally, the model driven by the feedback controller is validated by matching experimental data. It is demonstrated that the appropriate time delays may contribute to motor learning of diverse kinematic characteristics, which can be employed to accomplish the rehabilitation of patients suffering from mental or social disorders.