There was discussion of the need for graceful degradation of

There was discussion of the need for graceful degradation of a robot’s performance as the result of sensor or actuator failure. Explain the concept in your own words and describe some examples of how it might be implemented.

Solution

Graceful degradation is the ability of a computer, machine, electronic system or network to maintain limited functionality even when a large portion of it has been destroyed or rendered inoperative. The purpose of graceful degradation is to prevent catastrophic failure. Ideally, even the simultaneous loss of multiple components does not cause downtime in a system with this feature. In graceful degradation, the operating efficiency or speed declines gradually as an increasing number of components fail.

In the event that there is insufficient information for a robot reasoning system to continue with its task, it should be able to ``degrade gracefully\'\'. There are several components to graceful degradation.

From the above we know the need for gracefully degraded a robot for avoiding loss of data and lack of performance.

Examples include graceful degradation of websites, mobiles ,Robotic arms etc.Graceful degradation in Websites. It is the practice of building a web site or application so it provides a good level of user experience in modern browsers. However, it will degrade gracefully for those using older browsers. The system may not be as pleasant or as pretty, but the basic functionality will work on older systems .A simple example is the use of 24-bit alpha-transparent PNGs. Those images can be displayed on modern browsers without problems. IE5.5 and IE6 would show the image, but transparency effects would fail (it can be made to work if necessary). Older browsers that do not support PNG would show alt text or an empty space. Developers adopting graceful degradation often specify their browser support level, e.g. level 1 browsers (best experience) and level 2 browsers (degraded experience).