Session
2026 Session 1
Location
Orem, UT
Start Date
5-4-2026 9:20 AM
Description
This study analyzes human-human collaborative throwing under varying sensory conditions using a controlled dyadic task in which pairs of participants jointly throw a weighted sandbag to both horizontal distance and vertical height targets. Experiments were conducted under both full sensory access and conditions in which one participant wore a blindfold and noise-canceling headphones. High-resolution motion capture and synchronized audio recordings from a release-triggered clicker were used to quantify coordination dynamics, release behavior, and task performance.
Results show that participants’ release behavior closely follows a theoretical minimum-velocity solution to the projectile optimization problem, with deviations primarily arising in release angle rather than velocity. Despite repeated trials, human dyads do not exhibit significant improvement in release synchronization, suggesting that precise temporal coordination at release is not required for successful task execution. Instead, coordination appears to emerge through pre-release swing dynamics, which encode task-relevant information about in-tended throw parameters.
These findings suggest that human dyads rely on robust individual motor strategies and interaction-driven motion cues rather than strict timing synchronization. This has direct implications for the design of collaborative robotic systems that interact with humans in dynamic, release-based manipulation tasks.
Dyadic Human Throwing: Data Collection, Analysis, and Implications for Robotic Systems
Orem, UT
This study analyzes human-human collaborative throwing under varying sensory conditions using a controlled dyadic task in which pairs of participants jointly throw a weighted sandbag to both horizontal distance and vertical height targets. Experiments were conducted under both full sensory access and conditions in which one participant wore a blindfold and noise-canceling headphones. High-resolution motion capture and synchronized audio recordings from a release-triggered clicker were used to quantify coordination dynamics, release behavior, and task performance.
Results show that participants’ release behavior closely follows a theoretical minimum-velocity solution to the projectile optimization problem, with deviations primarily arising in release angle rather than velocity. Despite repeated trials, human dyads do not exhibit significant improvement in release synchronization, suggesting that precise temporal coordination at release is not required for successful task execution. Instead, coordination appears to emerge through pre-release swing dynamics, which encode task-relevant information about in-tended throw parameters.
These findings suggest that human dyads rely on robust individual motor strategies and interaction-driven motion cues rather than strict timing synchronization. This has direct implications for the design of collaborative robotic systems that interact with humans in dynamic, release-based manipulation tasks.