Journal article

Intermittent control: A computational theory of human control

P Gawthrop, I Loram, M Lakie, H Gollee

Biological Cybernetics | Published : 2011

Abstract

The paradigm of continuous control using internal models has advanced understanding of human motor control. However, this paradigm ignores some aspects of human control, including intermittent feedback, serial ballistic control, triggered responses and refractory periods. It is shown that event-driven intermittent control provides a framework to explain the behaviour of the human operator under a wider range of conditions than continuous control. Continuous control is included as a special case, but sampling, system matched hold, an intermittent predictor and an event trigger allow serial open-loop trajectories using intermittent feedback. The implementation here may be described as "continu..

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University of Melbourne Researchers

Grants

Awarded by Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council


Funding Acknowledgements

Peter Gawthrop is a Leverhulme Emeritus Research Fellow and gratefully acknowledges the support of the Leverhulme Trust. He is also a Visiting Research Fellow at the School of Sport and Exercise Sciences at the University of Birmingham and also visiting Professor at the Institute for Biomedical Research into Human Movement and Health at Manchester Metropolitan University. Some of the ideas in this paper were discussed with Prof. Peter Neilson and Professor Victor Solo while he was a Visiting Professorial Fellow in the Systems & Control Research Group the University of New South Wales. The work reported here is related to the linked EPSRC Grants EP/F068514/1, EP/F069022/1 and EP/F06974X/1 "Intermittent control of man and machine".