1. A method for fault reaction, fault isolation, and graceful degradation in a robotic system having a plurality of robotic arms, the method comprising: detecting a fault in a failed arm of the plurality of robotic arms; placing the failed arm into a safe state; determining whether the fault should be treated as a system fault or a local fault; and placing non-failed arms of the plurality of robotic arms in the safe state only if the fault is to be treated as a system fault.