Distributed fault detection and recovery for networked robots

The paper deals with the problem of decentralized fault detection, isolation and recovery for teams of networked robots. The proposed strategy is a combination of distributed and local approaches that allow the robots to deal with both recoverable and unrecoverable faults. A local adaptive fault observer is used to locally compensate recoverable faults, while a distributed fault detection and isolation strategy is used to allow each robot to detect unrecoverable faults on other teammates even if not directly connected; once the faulty robots have been isolated, they are removed from the team and the mission is rearranged. Results of numerical simulations and experiments involving a team of 5 mobile robots are provided to show the effectiveness of the approach.