Comparative study of the bimanual and collaborative modes for closely coupled manipulations

• Pair of participants are more performant than a bimanual symmetric configuration on molecular deformation.
• The more the task is complex, the more pairs are better than a symmetric bimanual interaction.
• Pair of participants are learning faster than single participants.

The interactive manipulation of complicated environments poses a real challenge since it involves the simultaneous management of several heterogeneous constraints. For instance, molecular design requires the simultaneous control of several connected kinematic structures, with strong physical and chemical interactions, to provide the relevant conformation and docking solutions. This paper investigates two working strategies for carrying out closely coupled manipulations in such environments. We present an experimental study which compares bimanual and collaborative configurations. For both strategies, we provide users with the same number of resources, such as the same visualization system and the same number of manipulation tools. The performances are better in the collaborative configuration for the simultaneous management of several constraints and the manipulation of distant regions. However, this working strategy involves a strong communication flow to coordinate the actions. The performances are better in the bimanual configuration when the tasks involve a limited working space and a low level of constraints.