FAULT TOLERANT AUTONOMOUS MOBILE ROBOTIC SYSTEMS

Abstract

Recent emphasis has been placed on mobile robotics performing in unstructured environments. This realm of operations requires many different algorithms to interpret the various situations. This not only requires a system that is able to support, and facilitate, the fusion of the results, but it also needs to be tolerant of system errors. In modern operating systems, separate processes are able to fail without affecting other processes. Using this ability, along with fault tolerant inter-process communications, and supervisory process managers, allows the total system to continue to operate under adverse conditions. While this paper focuses primarily on the challenges faced by mobile robotics, the approach can be extended to a wide range of systems which must autonomously identify and adapt to failures/situations.