A framework for robust mobile robot systems

Fielded mobile robot systems will inevitably suffer hardware and software failures. Failures in a single subsystem can often disable the entire robot, especially if the controlling application does not consider such failures. Often simple measures, such as a software restart or the use of a secondary sensor, can solve the problem. However, these fixes must generally be applied by a human expert, who might not be present in the field. In this paper, we describe a recovery-oriented framework for mobile robot applications which addresses this problem in two ways. First, fault isolation automatically provides graceful degradation of the overall system as individual software and hardware components fail. In addition, subsystems are monitored for known failure modes or aberrant behavior. The framework responds to detected or immanent failures by restarting or replacing the suspect component in a manner transparent to the application programmer and the robot’s operator.