One handed tracking in six degrees of freedom

The effect of movement in each of the six degrees of freedom (d.o.f.) on operator tracking performance is studied. Subjects used a single six-d.o.f. hand controller to track a target ball with a control ball on a computer monitor. Depth cues in the displayed tracking environment made tracking in three dimensions possible. Three sets of experiments were conducted in which movement occurred in one, three, and six d.o.f. at a time. Root mean square error (r.m.s.e.) was calculated for each d.o.f. as the measure of performance. The experiments were performed with velocity and acceleration control plant inputs