Title :
Fault tolerance via component redundancy for a modularized sensitive skin
Author :
Um, D. ; Lumelsky, V.
Author_Institution :
Robotics Lab., Wisconsin Univ., Madison, WI, USA
Abstract :
The objective of this work is to develop a fault tolerant system for a sensitive skin-based motion planning system. The purpose of the skin is to provide real-time collision avoidance for a machine (e.g. a mobile robot or an arm manipulator) operating in an uncertain environment with obstacles. The skin is designed to cover virtually any kind of machine; in the version used in this project the skin covers an industrial arm manipulator and contains about 1000 infrared sensors. In order to operate such a complex system in real time, effective fault tolerance is necessary. The latter is achieved in our system via component redundancy: the distance measurements necessary for motion planning are done using a particular scheme for sensor grouping. The system achieves safe motion planning even if some of the sensors are dead or partially inoperative. Based on the fault tolerance model used a fault tolerance algorithm is developed, tested and demonstrated experimentally
Keywords :
collision avoidance; distance measurement; fault tolerance; industrial manipulators; redundancy; sensors; component redundancy; distance measurements; industrial arm manipulator; infrared sensors; modularized sensitive skin; obstacles; real-time collision avoidance; sensitive skin-based motion planning system; uncertain environment; Collision avoidance; Fault tolerance; Fault tolerant systems; Infrared sensors; Manipulators; Mobile robots; Motion planning; Redundancy; Sensor systems; Skin;
Conference_Titel :
Robotics and Automation, 1999. Proceedings. 1999 IEEE International Conference on
Conference_Location :
Detroit, MI
Print_ISBN :
0-7803-5180-0
DOI :
10.1109/ROBOT.1999.770060