Dynamics of a tethered rover on rough terrain

The deployment of a complex modular cable robot is investigated. The act is performed by a supporting rover that drives on rough terrain while pulling – and unwinding – one of the tethers. In order to avoid rebounds and stress spikes, the cable must be kept in tension by the feeding mechanism. In this work, a constant torque control system is evaluated. A numerical simulation is carried out by direct time-integration of the dynamics equation of the cable and the drive. Results show that a constant torque applied by the motor unit is able to produce a tension in the cable that is well within the cable’s yield limits, while at the same time being consistently larger than zero. This shows the viability of this technology for the deployment of cable structures by rovers in extreme environments.