Practical problems in sliding scale autonomy: a case study

Sliding scale autonomy has been suggested as a practical way of organizing robot controls. In this paper, we investigate practical problems in sliding scale autonomy. We take a constructionist approach of building systems with sliding scale autonomy and identifying the challenges involved. We implement robot systems capable of operating semi-autonomously with user guidance. We describe the techniques used to construct the system, the problems discovered along the way, and the improvements achieved. We discuss key parts of two robotic systems we have constructed. We describe our user interface, obstacle avoidance, and localization as implemented on the robot systems.