Friction binding study and remedy design for tethered search and rescue robots

Mobile robots in search and rescue (SAR) are often tethered for power communications and recovery. This tether can often cause problems getting snagged in the environment. This study characterize tether snagging and proposes a novel tether managing robot (TMR) as a means of preventing snags and potentially delivering payloads. Data on tether interaction with obstacles inspired design features for the TMR which will allow an SAR robot attached to a tether to travel more easily. The proposed TMR can easily integrate to any tethered SAR robot.