The Shaky Hand is a multi-input, multi-output laboratory demonstrator which is modelled
on a village fete game. In the original, the aim is to guide, by hand, a wire loop along a wire
which has been bent to form a meandering track, 'without touching the loop to the wire. In
the original game, touching the hand-held loop against the wire track sets off a loud warning
bell and the player loses.
The thesis presents the research work associated with the quest for practical solutions to a
generic problem: the correct operation of a fallible system. The work covers three distinct
areas: modelling of the demonstrator, design and construction of a physical system, and
evoiution of algorithms for control of the demonstrator in practice in the presence of sensor
faults, using Cartesian Genetic Programming (CGP). The third area forms the core of the
thesis. The key challenges in creating the virtual environment to train for generic sensor fault
tolerant algorithms are considered and addressed. The evolved algorithms are analysed and
then verified using the demonstrator in practice. The practical results showed that sensor
fault tolerant control was successfully achieved