Robot Integrity Checking Using Pseudorandom Motion Tests
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing robot systems face challenges in ensuring system integrity without relying on redundancy, which can be costly and ineffective in detecting failures such as communication freezes, mechanical jams, or malicious attacks, especially in environments with humans and other objects.
Innovation Solution
An integrity-checking system that injects predefined control commands, such as pseudorandom movements, into the robot's motion control pipeline, monitoring the expected observations against actual results to detect faults, and utilizes optic flow techniques to verify sensor integrity without the need for redundancy.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If redundancy-based systems are used to ensure robot safety, then reliability improves, but device complexity and cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary integrity checks by injecting predefined motion commands before actual robot operations. The integrity checking system proactively tests sensor-subsystem integrity by comparing expected observations with actual sensor data, detecting potential failures before they affect safety-critical operations.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces an intermediary integrity checking system that acts as a mediator between the robot's control system and sensor subsystems. This intermediary layer injects test commands and monitors sensor responses without being part of the primary safety-critical control loop, thereby reducing overall system complexity while maintaining reliability.
2Reliability
If redundancy-based systems are used to ensure robot safety, then reliability improves, but cost increases
Solution Approach 1:
The robot's existing sensor subsystems serve dual purposes: they perform both normal operational sensing and integrity checking functions. The same sensors used for navigation and task execution are utilized to detect injected motion commands and report their observations, eliminating the need for separate redundant safety sensors and reducing component costs.
Solution Approach 2:
The integrity checking system leverages the universality of existing robot components by making them perform multiple functions. The sensor subsystems are used both for their primary task-related functions and for safety integrity verification, maximizing component utilization and avoiding additional hardware costs.
3Ease of operation
If traditional monitoring methods are used, then ease of operation is maintained, but measurement precision of sensor failures decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The system applies preliminary anti-action by proactively injecting motion commands that anticipate potential sensor failures. By comparing expected sensor responses to actual observations before critical failures occur, the system precisely detects sensor-subsystem integrity issues without disrupting normal operation.
Solution Approach 2:
The integrity checking system implements continuous feedback by monitoring the difference between expected sensor observations (based on injected motion commands) and actual sensor data. This feedback mechanism provides precise measurement of sensor failure conditions while maintaining ease of operation through automated monitoring.
Data Source
AI summary
Disclosed herein are systems, devices, and methods for efficiently checking the integrity of a robot system. The integrity-checking system may generate a predefined motion instruction for a robot, where the predefined motion instruction instructs the robot to perform a random movement at a test time. The random movement may be associated with an expected observation at the test time. The integrity-checking system may also determine a systematic failure based on a difference between the expected observation and a current observation of the robot at the test time. The current observation may be determined from received sensor data, and if the integrity-checking system detects a failure, it may stop the robot's motion or other mitigating instructions.