A Comparison of Forward and Inverse Simulation Methods for Fault Detection on a Rover

Fault tolerant design is hugely important for autonomous mobile robots such as planetary exploration rovers (PERs), as they are required to be both robust and reliable in extremely harsh environments. One of the main principles of fault tolerance is the detection and diagnosis of any faults afflicting the system. A model-based fault detection procedure is presented using forward and inverse simulation methods. The results of each method are compared for faults in different system locations to display the differences and advantages of both methods. It is shown by this comparison that the methods complement each other and can be used concurrently to diagnose output and input faults.