Effect of Auditory Feedback on Operating Efficiency and Fatigue -In the Case of Manual Cut-Off Turning with Virtual Lathe-

From the economical efficiency, the manufacturing system in which the mentality and flexibility of human operators are utilized positively is occasionally superior to a fully-automated system. In order to take the manual operation into a manufacturing system reasonably, the operation should be rightly appreciated and the arrangement in the system should be fully investigated. In the well-arranged system, the operators can become swiftly accustomed to their job, their performance can be high and their fatigue can be low. The purpose of this research is to clarify the characteristics of the manual operation systematically. To do this, a virtual manually-operated-machine or simulator has been developed. By using the simulator, it is possible to monitor the behavior of the operator precisely. In the present paper, as the first step to the research, operating efficiency and fatigue of the operators have been analyzed experimentally, when they got operating force as auditory information besides force perception. The examined operation is a cut-off turning with a virtual lathe. As the results, the auditory feedback is significantly effective in improvement of efficiency and reduction of fatigue, though the effectiveness is different according to timbre of the feedback sound.