OPRoS based fault tolerance support for reliability of service robots

For commercial success of emerging service robots, the fault tolerant technology for system reliability and human safety is crucial. Traditionally fault tolerance methods have been implemented in application level. However, from our studies on the common design patterns in fault tolerance, we argue that a framework-based approach provides many benefits in providing reliability for system development. To demonstrate the benefits, we build a framework-based fault tolerant engine for OPRoS (Open Platform for Robotic Services) standards. The fault manager in framework provides a set of fault tolerant measures of detection, isolation, and recovery. The system integrators choose the appropriate fault handling tools by declaring XML configuration descriptors, considering the constraints of components and operating environment. By building a fault tolerant navigation application from the non-fault-tolerant components, we demonstrate the usability and benefits of the proposed framework-based approach.