There exist many factors that contribute to the optimal manual control of a system by a human operator (HO). Two such variables include control gain and display gain. Of particular interest to the following experiment is the contribution of these two variables to the manual tracking performance of any HO conducting a compensatory tracking task while using a first control-order tracking system. Since the optimal level of control gain required for maximal manual control of a tracking device is system dependent, it may be expected that the same holds true of display gain. Regardless, it is the purpose of the following proposed experiment to show that superior HO performance of the compensatory manual tracking system under study may be brought about by the combination of lower levels of control gain and higher levels of display gain in comparison to the combination of any other levels of these same variables. Tracking performance will be measured by the root mean squared error (RMSE) of tracking deviation as measured by the amount of distance that the element being controlled by participants under study deviated from the tracking device within a given time period.
","abstract_html":"<p>There exist many factors that contribute to the optimal manual control of a system by a human operator (HO). Two such variables include control gain and display gain. Of particular interest to the following experiment is the contribution of these two variables to the manual tracking performance of any HO conducting a compensatory tracking task while using a first control-order tracking system. Since the optimal level of control gain required for maximal manual control of a tracking device is system dependent, it may be expected that the same holds true of display gain. Regardless, it is the purpose of the following proposed experiment to show that superior HO performance of the compensatory manual tracking system under study may be brought about by the combination of lower levels of control gain and higher levels of display gain in comparison to the combination of any other levels of these same variables. Tracking performance will be measured by the root mean squared error (RMSE) of tracking deviation as measured by the amount of distance that the element being controlled by participants under study deviated from the tracking device within a given time period.</p>","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Morris, Micah N."],"institution":null,"degree_name":"Master of Science in Human Factors & Systems","degree_level":"Thesis - Open Access","degree_discipline":"Human Factors and Systems","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Shawn Michael Doherty","Steven Hall","Kenneth Fleming"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2003,"date_issued":"2003-10-01T07:00:00Z","date_published":"2003-10-01T07:00:00Z","updated_at":"2026-07-27T19:25:29Z","subjects":["control","manual tracking","Ergonomics","Operations Research, Systems Engineering and Industrial Engineering"],"languages":[],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://commons.erau.edu/db-theses/150","outbound_label":"Repository record","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Shawn Michael Doherty","Steven Hall","Kenneth Fleming"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Morris, Micah N."]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["Human Factors and Systems"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Thesis - Open Access"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Master of Science in Human Factors & Systems"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["control","manual tracking","Ergonomics","Operations Research, Systems Engineering and Industrial Engineering"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://commons.erau.edu/db-theses/150"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["There exist many factors that contribute to the optimal manual control of a system by a human operator (HO). Two such variables include control gain and display gain. Of particular interest to the following experiment is the contribution of these two variables to the manual tracking performance of any HO conducting a compensatory tracking task while using a first control-order tracking system. Since the optimal level of control gain required for maximal manual control of a tracking device is system dependent, it may be expected that the same holds true of display gain. Regardless, it is the purpose of the following proposed experiment to show that superior HO performance of the compensatory manual tracking system under study may be brought about by the combination of lower levels of control gain and higher levels of display gain in comparison to the combination of any other levels of these same variables. Tracking performance will be measured by the root mean squared error (RMSE) of tracking deviation as measured by the amount of distance that the element being controlled by participants under study deviated from the tracking device within a given time period.
"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Variations in Control and Display Gain in a First Control Order Compensatory Manual Tracking Task"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Shawn Michael Doherty","Steven Hall","Kenneth Fleming"],"dc:creator":["Morris, Micah N."],"dc:description.abstract":["There exist many factors that contribute to the optimal manual control of a system by a human operator (HO). Two such variables include control gain and display gain. Of particular interest to the following experiment is the contribution of these two variables to the manual tracking performance of any HO conducting a compensatory tracking task while using a first control-order tracking system. Since the optimal level of control gain required for maximal manual control of a tracking device is system dependent, it may be expected that the same holds true of display gain. Regardless, it is the purpose of the following proposed experiment to show that superior HO performance of the compensatory manual tracking system under study may be brought about by the combination of lower levels of control gain and higher levels of display gain in comparison to the combination of any other levels of these same variables. Tracking performance will be measured by the root mean squared error (RMSE) of tracking deviation as measured by the amount of distance that the element being controlled by participants under study deviated from the tracking device within a given time period.
"],"dc:identifier":["https://commons.erau.edu/db-theses/150"],"dc:subject":["control","manual tracking","Ergonomics","Operations Research, Systems Engineering and Industrial Engineering"],"dc:title":["Variations in Control and Display Gain in a First Control Order Compensatory Manual Tracking Task"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["Human Factors and Systems"],"thesis:degree_level":["Thesis - Open Access"],"thesis:degree_name":["Master of Science in Human Factors & Systems"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-27T19:25:29Z"}