The Impact of Transferring Embodiment and Work Efficiency Between Natural Body and Modular Body Systems

Human augmentation technology, particularly supernumerary robotic limbs, has seen rapid growth and offers promising applications. However, the cognitive aspects of supernumerary robotic limbs, such as the sense of embodiment, remain underexplored in the context of modular body systems that which provide the part of one’s own body feeling, especially when detached, and how this might impact work efficiency. This study aims to investigate the impact of experience of synchronizing Sense of Embodiment and work efficiency between the user’s innate body and a modular body system. The experiment was conducted using a modular body prototype and compared between with wearing experience (the user is more likely to perceive this robot as a part of their body) and without wearing experience (the user is more likely to perceive this robot as a separate, standalone robot). Objective evaluations included task completion time and accuracy, while the sense of embodiment questionnaire was employed for subjective evaluations. The results suggested that after having experience of wearing modular arm for a while, this experience can influence the work efficiency even if it was used without wearing it.