Title: WheelCon: A wheel control-based gaming platform for studying human sensorimotor control,
Abstract: Feedback control theory has been extensively implemented to theoretically
model human sensorimotor control. However, experimental platforms capable of
manipulating important components of multiple feedback loops lack development.
This paper describes the WheelCon, which is an open source platform aimed at
resolving such insufficiencies. WheelCon enables safely simulation of the
canonical sensorimotor task such as riding a mountain bike down a steep,
twisting, bumpy trail etc., with provided only a computer, standard display,
and an inexpensive gaming steering wheel with a force feedback motor. The
platform provides flexibility, as will be demonstrated in the demos provided,
so that researchers may manipulate the disturbances, delay, and quantization
(data rate) in the layered feedback loops, including a high-level advanced plan
layer and a low-level delayed reflex layer. In this paper, we illustrate
WheelCon's graphical user interface (GUI), the input and output of existing
demos, and how to design new games. In addition, we present the basic feedback
model, and we show the testing results from our demo games which align well
with prediction from the model. In short, the platform is featured as cheap,
simple to use, and flexible to program for effective sensorimotor neuroscience
research and control engineering education.