Effect of kinematic structure and dual actuation on fault tolerance of robot manipulators

Fault tolerance promises higher system reliability and safety for mechanical systems as it has for computer hardware and software, nuclear reactors and aircraft industry. This work addresses the fault tolerance capability gained by robotic manipulators as their design is enhanced by serial and parallel mechanisms, kinematic redundancy and dual actuators. As these design options improve a robotic system's tolerance to faults, it becomes necessary to evaluate the degree of fault tolerance gained by the system. This paper develops a measure for fault tolerance capability of a robotic system and provides several example robots to illustrate its use