Fault-tolerant robotic system for critical applications

The concept, design, and features of a fault-tolerant intelligent robotic control system being developed for Space and commercial applications that require high dependability are described. The comprehensive strategy integrates system level hardware/software fault tolerance with task level handling of uncertainties and unexpected events for robotic control. The underlying architecture for system level fault tolerance is the distributed recovery block which protects against application software, system software, hardware, and network failures. Task-level fault tolerance provisions are implemented in a knowledge-based system which utilizes advanced automation techniques such as rule-based and model-based reasoning to monitor, diagnose, and recover from unexpected events. The two-level design provides tolerance of two or more faults occurring serially at any level of command, control, sensing, or actuation