Towards Immune Inspired Fault Tolerance in Embedded Systems

The immune system is a remarkable natural system that is proving to be of great inspiration to computer scientists and engineers alike. This paper discusses the role that the immune system can play in the development of fault tolerant embedded systems. Initial work in the area has highlighted the use of the immune process of negative selection, and more importantly the concept of self/non-self discrimination in the application of artificial immune systems in fault tolerance. This paper reviews those works, highlights issues relating to the way in which this area is approached, and raises important points that need to be considered before effective immune inspired fault tolerant systems can be constructed.