Hopefully this starts a discussion/trend towards failure-tolerant robotics. Much as we have seen on commercial aircraft, relying on such things as a single sensor (or not being able to tolerate the failure of a single sensor) could spell trouble and even tragedy.<p>Having been involved in failure tolerant design for mechanical, electronic and software systems, I think I can say that this is an aspect of engineering that is well understood by those working in industries that require it.<p>Generalizing --perhaps unfairly-- I imagine that most engineers working on this class of robot have had little, if any, exposure to failure tolerant designs. They cost more, require more attention and analysis of designs and lots of testing. However, as robots of many forms interact with humans, this type of resiliency will become critically important.<p>A practical home or warehouse robot that can lift and manipulate useful weights (say, 20 or 30 Kg) will have enough power to seriously hurt someone. If a single sensor failure, disconnection or error can launch it into uncontrolled behavior, the outcome could be terrible.