A new flexible component for field robotic system

Abstract

This paper introduces a new research on tethered connections called "hyper-tether", to provide tethering among different mobile robot types, such as a robot with the environment and a robot with humans and animals. Hyper-tether's basic function is to actively control the tether's tension and/or length, but it also considers tether launching, anchoring, power delivery, data communication cabling and built-in trajectory command generation capabilities. In this paper, the implementation details, advantages, potential applications and research topics of the proposed hyper-tether are explained.