Human augmentation hand for cooperative solving of dissection puzzle problem

Human augmentation technologies can strengthen and compensate for the lack of human abilities associated with aging and physical disabilities. Efforts have been made to apply these technologies in manufacturing and agricultural industries to improve work efficiency, reduce fatigue, and cover differences in workers’ skills. This study proposes a human augmentation hand to assist users in performing intelligent tasks requiring high brain functions, such as cognition, planning, judgment, and memory. Solving a dissection puzzle is used as an example of an intelligent task. The human augmentation hand has a view of the puzzle blocks with an attached camera, and the puzzle blocks required for solving the dissection puzzle are derived using a full-search algorithm. The system can then provide user hints for solving puzzles and assist in handling puzzle blocks. An experiment is conducted to confirm the operation of the system and examine its usefulness. A National Aeronautics and Space Administration task load index (NASA-TLX) questionnaire is used to investigate the subjective workload perceived by users. The experimental results reveal that the proposed system improves task efficiency and reduces workloads that require high brain functions.