We-information can facilitate performance in joint teleoperation over a humanoid robot

In this study, we developed a setup allowing two participants (“operators”) to jointly control a single humanoid robot body. Specifically, each operator controlled one robot arm, using their anatomically congruent hand (left hand controlling a left robot arm and vice versa). In our task participants had to move each robot arm into one of two possible positions (arm raised or lowered). We used this setup to investigate (1) whether presenting prior information about the relationship between movements performed by each participant (“We-information”) can facilitate performance in this task, (2) how joint control over a robot body affects sense of control over the robot and sense of joint agency with the other operator, and (3) how it influences the perceived boundaries between oneself and the others (the robot and the other operator), the so-called “self-other” overlap. We found that (1) “We-information” increased the speed of task performance, but only for simpler configurations, (2) participants experienced high level of sense of control over the robot which increased throughout the task, and (3) a short session of joint control over a humanoid led to pronounced increase in self-other overlap (blurring of boundaries) with both the robot and a co-operator. We discuss implications of our results for understanding of human body representation and how they can inform future applications, such as exoskeletons for individuals affected with hemiplegia.