Fault Tolerant and Adaptive Path Planning for Mobile Robots Based on Health Signals

Abstract:
Complex systems like mobile robots can be designed not to fail completely, but to show graceful degradation of their capabilities in case of faults. In order to indicate the overall fitness of mobile robots, health signals can be used. This paper examines the effect of health signals on adaptive path planning. The fact that a damaged robot may not be capable of crossing every terrain is utilized in this context. The resulting system is realized under the design principles of organic computing. This means that specialized units that operate side by side and observe one another are implemented, mimicking an organic system. One unit performs a static path planning, while another unit observes the fitness of the robot and intervenes into the path planning if necessary. The path planner is based on a wave front approach. First results making use of a custom made simulator show the effectiveness of this approach.