Enhance Kinesthetic Experience in Perceptual Learning for Welding Motor Skill Acquisition With Virtual Reality and...

Area of Science:

• Robotics in industrial training
• Human-robot interaction for skill transfer
• Perceptual learning in motor skills

Background:

• Welding requires extensive training and practice, with challenges in transferring expert kinesthetic experience to novices.
• Existing welding simulators struggle to convey essential aspects like proper force exertion.
• Understanding motor skill acquisition in welding is crucial for effective training.

Purpose of the Study:

• To implement a robot-assisted perceptual learning system for transferring expert welding positional and force control actions to trainees.
• To evaluate the effectiveness of robotic guidance in welding motion control and force exertion.
• To investigate the motor skill acquisition process in novice welders using different training conditions.

Main Methods:

• A human-subject experiment with 30 participants was conducted.
• Three experimental conditions were tested: control, robotic positional guidance with force visualization, and force perceptual learning with position visualization.
• The study focused on transferring expert positional and force control actions via a robot-assisted system.

Main Results:

• Robotic guidance demonstrated benefits in task completion time.
• Improved force control accuracy was observed under robotic guidance conditions.
• The study provided insights into the motor skill acquisition process during welding training.

Conclusions:

• Robot-assisted perceptual learning systems can effectively transfer expert welding skills, including force exertion.
• Robotic guidance plays a significant role in enhancing welding motion control and force exertion accuracy.
• The findings suggest future directions for designing advanced robotic training systems for welding.