Failure Detection and Isolation of Ultrasonic Ranging Sensors for Robotic Applications

A failure detection and isolation (FDI) method for validation of ultrasonic ranging sensor (URS) signals in robot position control systems is presented. The technique builds upon the concepts of parity space and analytic redundancy where integration of analytic and sensor redundancy provides a direct, reliable method for measuring the end effector position of a robot relative to the world coordinates. These measurements are not influenced by deflections caused by the payload, accumulated joint measurement errors in a serial mechanism, and computational errors in executing kinematic relationships. The position control system’s insensitivity to structural deflections allows the robot to handle larger payloads. Simulation results are presented to demonstrate how the FDI technique can be applied.