Stability of Tethered Ground Robots on Extreme Terrains

In the absence of a tether attachment mechanism that can provide infinitely large tension to the tethered robots moving on extreme planetary terrains, there is a limit on how much tension can be realistically generated or supported by the tether. In this paper, we consider a team of two robots tethered together moving on extreme terrains. The traction on the wheels of the robot and the friction between the tether and the tether attachment surfaces/objects (e.g., rocks) is the only way to support the tether tension. Given a path for the robots to navigate, we provide a systematic algorithm to check if the robots will be stable along the given path while considering the maximum constraints on the tension generated or supported by the tether. The results are validated via simulation experiments.