A Multimicroprocessor System for Fault Tolerant Control of an Articulated Mechanism

A multiprocessor system consisting of three processors built for reliable control of an electrically powered leg (the OSU Monopod) is described. All computations are done in a redundant fashion by two processors. Results are then compared by a different pair of processors, and all three processors participate in the identification of the faulty processor in case of a disagreement of the two sets of results. The system is reconfigured when one of the computers fails. Comparison and fault diagnosis are done by software.