Checkpoint-based tracing for monitoring a robotic system

• Main Authors: Nortman, Randall, Binet, Guillaume, Meyer, Nicholas J
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 17.05.2022
• Subjects: ARRANGEMENTS, SYSTEMS OR APPARATUS FOR CHECKING NOT PROVIDEDFOR ELSEWHERE; CALCULATING; CHECKING-DEVICES; COMPUTING; CONTROL OR REGULATING SYSTEMS IN GENERAL; CONTROLLING; COUNTING; ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING; FUNCTIONAL ELEMENTS OF SUCH SYSTEMS; GENERATING RANDOM NUMBERS; MEASURING; MONITORING OR TESTING ARRANGEMENTS FOR SUCH SYSTEMS ORELEMENTS; PHYSICS; REGISTERING OR INDICATING THE WORKING OF MACHINES; REGULATING; SYSTEMS FOR CONTROLLING OR REGULATING NON-ELECTRIC VARIABLES; TESTING; TESTING STATIC OR DYNAMIC BALANCE OF MACHINES ORSTRUCTURES; TESTING STRUCTURES OR APPARATUS NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR; TIME OR ATTENDANCE REGISTERS; VOTING OR LOTTERY APPARATUS

To identify sources of data resulting from an execution flow in a robotic device such as an autonomous vehicle, an operating system receives sensor data from various sensors of the robotic device. For each sensor, the system generates a data log comprising an identifier of a first checkpoint associated with that sensor, as well as a first timestamp. The system performs an execution flow on the sensor data from that sensor. The system updates the data log to include an identifier and timestamp for one or more additional checkpoints during the execution flow. The system then fuses results, uses the fused data as an input for a decision process, and causes a component of the robotic device to take an action in response to an output of the decision process. The system may record the action, an action timestamp and the data logs for each sensor in a memory.