Blending human and robot inputs for sliding scale autonomy

Most robot systems have discrete autonomy levels, if they possess more than a single autonomy level. A user or the robot may switch between these discrete modes, but the robot can not operate at a level between any two modes. We have developed a sliding scale autonomy system that allows autonomy levels to be created and changed on the fly. This paper discusses the system's architecture and presents the results of experiments with the sliding scale autonomy system.