Exception Handling in Robotics.

Robot programs may be logically correct yet they may occasionally fail due to errors caused by abnormal external events or conditions. Robot programs should be able to cope with such conditions, i.e., they should be robust and reliable. We discuss the kinds of errors that arise in robot applications and the requirements for handling these errors. We then briefly describe the use of checkpointing and exceptional handling facilities to handle errors in robot programs. Next we discuss in detail the use of programming language exception handling facilities to handle errors in robot programs. Exception handling facilities are a mechanism for writing reliable, robust and easier to maintain robot programs. We illustrate exception handling by two examples written in Exceptional C.