Accelerating Teleoperation Skill Acquisition through Visuo-Haptic Replay
Francisco Miguel Ribeiro, Jihoon Park, Minoru Asada, Erhan Oztop
Abstract
Training humans to control dynamic systems such as prosthetic limbs or teleoperated robots typically requires extensive practice. In this study, we investigate whether passive exposure to skilled control behavior—delivered via synchro- nized haptic and visual playback—can accelerate visuomotor learning in a non-trivial control task. Using a simulated cart- pole environment, we compare performance between partici- pants who received an initial session of passive visuo-haptic replay and those who directly began with active control. Our results show that passive exposure yields two clear benefits: improved initial performance and a steeper learning curve across subsequent sessions. These findings suggest that passive sensorimotor experience, even without haptic guidance during active control, can support the acquisition of motor skills necessary for dynamic control. This approach may provide a low-effort and scalable training paradigm for enhancing skill acquisition in robotic and assistive technologies.