Assistive machines such as robotic arms and powered wheelchairs promote independence and ability in those with severe motor impairments. As the field of assistive robotics progresses rapidly, these devices are becoming more capable and dextrous and as a result, higher dimensional and harder to control. The dimensionality mismatch between high-dimensional robots and low-dimensional control interfaces requires the control space to be partitioned into control modes. For full control of the robot the user switches between these partitions and this is known as mode switching.

Parking can take up a significant amount of the trip costs (time and money) in urban travel. As such, it can considerably influence travelers' choices of modes, locations, and time of travel. The advent of smart sensors, wireless communications, social media and big data analytics offers a unique opportunity to tap parking's influence on travel to make the transportation system more efficient, cleaner, and more resilient. A cyber-physical social system for parking is proposed to realize parking's potential in achieving the above goals.