Anticipatory control of steering through multiple waypoints
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Authors
Jansen, AJ
Issue Date
2025-05
Type
Electronic thesis
Thesis
Thesis
Language
en_US
Keywords
Cognitive science
Alternative Title
Abstract
Many skilled locomotor tasks require steering through complex environments at speed, moving smoothly from one waypoint to the next while avoiding obstacles. The existing body of literature examining the ability of humans to navigate complex environments leaves critical open questions about the control strategy that governs this behavior and, specifically, the role of information from multiple future waypoints. We performed two experiments using a simulated drone-flying task with different vehicle dynamics to empirically address these questions. When the drone dynamics simulated low agility, subjects made a large deviation in their trajectory, veering away from the immediate waypoint (WPN) in the opposite direction from the next future waypoint (WPN+1) before turning back. In the experiment with high agility, subjects steered more directly to WPN, turning toward WPN+1 just before passing WPN. Subjects adapted their trajectories differently under different drone dynamics, supporting an affordance-based control strategy. Within each experiment, we also manipulated the angle, distance, and orientation of WPN+1. Subjects’ speed and the shape of their trajectory were strongly affected by both angle and distance of WPN+1 in a manner modulated by agility. The results from this study provide important insights into the control strategy used to guide human steering, including the specific role of WPN+1, that can be used to inform development of a model of steering through multiple waypoints.
Description
May2025
School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences
School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences
Full Citation
Publisher
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY