The issue of performance versus reliability is also addressed. Most robot controllers today employ a single processor architecture. As robot control requirements become more complex, these serial controllers have difficulty providing the desired response time. Additionally, with robots being used in environments that are hazardous or inaccessible to humans, fault-tolerant robotic systems are particularly desirable. Use of multiple processors for robot control offers two advantages over single processor systems.
Parallel control provides a faster response, which in turn allows a finer granularity of control.
Processor fault tolerance is also made possible by the existence of multiple processors. There is a trade-off between performance and the level of fault tolerance provided. We have developed a shared memory multiprocessor robot controller that is capable of providing high performance and processor fault tolerance. This controller demonstrates how performance and processor fault tolerance can be balanced in a cost-effective manner. This research is a joint effort with Prof. Ian Walker, and represents the doctoral thesis work of Dierdre Hamilton.