TASK RELIABILITY ASSESSMENT IN ROBOTIC SYSTEMS

A new method for assessing the performance of a robotic system perform ing a high-precision task has been developed. The method utilizes an e ntropy-based formulation to provide a measure of the reliability of a robotic system with respect to a task specification. The derivation of the proposed technique is presented, including two alternative formul ations that differ in terms of their complexity and level of approxima tion. Methods for combining these measures for complex robotic tasks a re detailed. The new method is demonstrated in a case study involving a robotic assembly system, in which the entropy formulation is used to select an optimal system design from a set of alternatives. (C) 1995 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.