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US 2023/0088591 A1Published application
Fault Tolerant System with Minimal Hardware
AssigneeApple Inc.
InventorsFernando A. Mujica, Joyce Y. Kwong, Mark P. Colosky
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Fault tolerance for an automation controller for a machine is provided. A first portion of phases of the automation controller may be processed with fail operational protection, in which a failure of one of the computers used for the first portion still permits full operational functionality in the machine. The remaining portion of the phases are processed with fail degraded protection, in which a failure of a computer used for the remaining portion permits continued operation but with one or more constraints, as compared to the fail operational portions.
Claims20
An automation controller comprising:
- a first plurality of computers configured to process sensor data from a plurality of sensors on a robotically-controlled mobile machine to generate an output trajectory to be followed by the robotically-controlled mobile machine, wherein the first plurality of computers are configured to provide fail degraded protection for a portion of the processing and fail operational protection for remainder of the processing, wherein the fail degraded protection allows the robotically-controlled mobile machine to operate after a failure of one of the first plurality of computers with one or more constraints, wherein the fail operational protection allows the robotically-controlled mobile machine to continue to operate after a failure without application of the one or more constraints;
- and
- a second plurality of computers coupled to the first plurality of computers and configured to control a plurality of actuators in the robotically-controlled mobile machine to cause the robotically-controlled mobile machine to follow the output trajectory, wherein the second plurality of computers implement a dual lockstep, doubly redundant mechanism to provide fail operational protection.
A machine comprising:
- a plurality of sensors;
- and
- an automation controller coupled to the plurality of sensors, wherein the automation controller comprises:
- a first plurality of computers configured to process sensor data from the plurality of sensors to generate an output trajectory to be followed by the machine, wherein the first plurality of computers are configured to provide fail degraded protection for a portion of the processing and fail operational protection for a remainder of the processing, wherein the fail degraded protection allows the machine to operate after a failure of one of the first plurality of computers with one or more constraints, wherein the one or more constraints are not applied to machine operation after a failure of one of the first plurality of computers with fail operational protection;
- and
- a second plurality of computers coupled to the first plurality of computers and configured to control a plurality of actuators in the machine to cause the machine to follow the output trajectory, wherein the second plurality of computers implement a dual lockstep, doubly redundant mechanism to provide fail operational protection.
3 more elements
A method comprising:
- zonally processing sensor data from a plurality of sensors in respective computers of a first plurality of computers, providing fail degraded protection during the zonally processing;
- centrally processing, by the first plurality of computers, data resulting from the zonally processing, providing fail operational protection during the centrally processing;
- generating, by the first plurality of computers, a plurality of potential actions for a machine based on a plurality of objects surrounding the machine identified by the zonally processing and centrally processing;
- generating a plurality of potential trajectories by the first plurality of computers based on the plurality of potential actions, providing fail degraded protection during the generating the plurality of potential trajectories;
- and
- evaluating, by the first plurality of computers, the plurality of potential trajectories to select on output trajectory, providing fail operational protection during the evaluating.
3 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.