As robot teleoperation increasingly becomes integral in executing tasks in distant, hazardous, or inaccessible environments, the challenge of operational delays remains a significant obstacle. These delays are inherent in signal transmission and processing and can adversely affect the operators performance, particularly in tasks requiring precision and timeliness. While current research has made strides in mitigating these delays through advanced control strategies and training methods, a crucial gap persists in understanding the neurofunctional impacts of these delays and the efficacy of countermeasures from a cognitive perspective. Our study narrows this gap by leveraging functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) to examine the neurofunctional implications of simulated haptic feedback on cognitive activity and motor coordination under delayed conditions. In a human-subject experiment (N=41), we manipulated sensory feedback to observe its influences on various brain regions of interest (ROIs) response during teleoperation tasks. The fNIRS data provided a detailed assessment of cerebral activity, particularly in ROIs implicated in time perception and the execution of precise movements. Our results reveal that certain conditions, which provided immediate simulated haptic feedback, significantly optimized neural functions related to time perception and motor coordination, and improved motor performance. These findings provide empirical evidence about the neurofunctional basis of the enhanced motor performance with simulated synthetic force feedback in the presence of teleoperation delays.

翻译：随着机器人遥操作日益成为在遥远、危险或不可达环境中执行任务的关键技术，操作延迟这一挑战仍然是一大障碍。这些延迟源于信号传输与处理过程，可能对操作者的性能产生不利影响，尤其是在需要精确性和及时性的任务中。尽管当前研究通过先进的控制策略和训练方法在缓解这些延迟方面取得了进展，但在理解延迟的神经功能影响及从认知角度评估应对措施的有效性方面，仍存在关键空白。本研究通过利用功能性近红外光谱（fNIRS）技术，模拟触觉反馈在延迟条件下对认知活动和运动协调的神经功能影响，填补了这一空白。在一项包含41名受试者的人体实验中，我们操纵感觉反馈以观察其对遥操作任务期间多个感兴趣脑区（ROI）反应的影响。fNIRS数据提供了对大脑活动的详细评估，特别是涉及时间感知和精确运动执行的ROI。结果表明，某些提供即时模拟触觉反馈的条件显著优化了与时间感知和运动协调相关的神经功能，并改善了运动表现。这些发现为在遥操作延迟条件下模拟合成力反馈如何增强运动性能的神经功能基础提供了实证证据。