A fuzzy predictive redundancy system for fault-tolerance of x-by-wire systems

Safety issues and the dependence of numerous systems on electronics are rapidly increasing the concern over fault-tolerance. As an example, an intelligent vehicle with electronically controlled x-by-wire systems composed of dynamically configurable electronic elements instead of rigid mechanical components must be fault tolerant because a devastating failure could occur without warning. In particular, a safety-related malfunction of the brakes, throttle, or steering system could lead to serious injury or death and damage the manufacturer's reputation. If there is a warning it may not be as devastating as one could prevent it or mitigate it. Therefore, fault-tolerance is the primary focus of x-by-wire systems development. To address this concern, this paper presents a fuzzy predictive redundancy system that can remove most erroneous faults with a fault-detection algorithm. This paper also introduces a prototype of the system using an embedded microcontroller unit to show that it outperforms well-known average and median voters. The experimental results show that fuzzy predictive redundancy can be an appropriate choice for fault-tolerance in the x-by-wire systems such as steer-by-wire system or brake-by-wire system of intelligent vehicle. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.