An Implementation of High Availability in Networked Robotic Systems

Abstract

Nowadays production flows are modular, each module in the enterprise being specialized and used to achieve a particular task. In many cases the modules are interconnected and materials are sequentially processed in each module resulting a final, unique product or assembly. One typical such production module is a flexible cell/system using multiple robots. In such complex enterprise environments, providing continuous services for applications is a key component of a successful implementing of robotized manufacturing. High availability (HA) is one of the components contributing to continuous service provision for applications, by masking or eliminating both planned and unplanned downtime of systems and applications. This is achieved by eliminating hardware and software single points of failure (SPOF). The systems configured for high availability are a combination of hardware and software components configured to work together to ensure automated recovery in case of failure with a minimal acceptable downtime. A high availability solution will ensure that the failure of any component of the solution either hardware, software or system management, will not cause the application and its data to become permanently unavailable. High availability solutions should eliminate single points of failure through appropriate design, planning, hardware selection, software configuring, application control, carefully environment control and change management discipline. In short, one can define high availability as the process of ensuring an application is available for use by duplicating and/or sharing hardware resources managed by a specialized software component. A high availability solution in robotized manufacturing provides automated failure detection, diagnosis, application recovery, and node (robot controller) re integration. The chapter discusses the implementing of a high availability solution in a robotized manufacturing structure (cell, line). The solution is based on a High Availability Linux Cluster which is responsible for data availability and preservation on a NFS (Network File System) file system, and a second cluster – Fabrication Cluster (FC) which runs on Adept robot controllers, developed under the V+ programming language.