Distributed control and communication fault tolerance for the CKBot

Abstract

Abstract—In this paper we present a method for distributed fault tolerance in a modular robotic system. We describe an im-plementation of this method on the CKBot system. In particular, we broadcast infrared (IR) signals to modules which collaboratively vote on a majority course of action. Various gait selections for a 7 module caterpillar and a 16 module quadruped with a faulty subset of IR receivers have been verified to demonstrate the algorithm’s robustness. We conclude the paper with a discussion of modes of fault tolerances and this method’s applicability to other modular robotic systems. Index Terms—Modular robots, fault tolerance 1.