Redundancy as a Design Principle for Building a Strategically Robust Control System

Abstract

Redundancy is the existence of more than one means for performing a given function, Similar to many robust biological systems [6], strategically robust systems use multiple redundant pathways, in this case so that saboteurs cannot benefit by knocking out single components. This approach might be particularly valuable for systems that need to be strategically robust against evolving enemies. By deploying multiple redundant defense pathways, the host can influence the evolutionary trajectory of a pathogen population. Redundant defense mechanisms reduce the selective advantage to the pathogen of knocking out a single mechanism [3]. This, in turn, greatly increases the difficulty of the adaptive search problem that the pathogen faces when looking for a weak point in the defenses of the host.