TY - JOUR
T1 - Entanglement Definitions for Tethered Robots
T2 - Exploration and Analysis
AU - Battocletti, Gianpietro
AU - Boskos, Dimitris
AU - Tolić, Domagoj
AU - Palunko, Ivana
AU - De Schutter, B.H.K.
PY - 2024
Y1 - 2024
N2 - In this article we consider the problem of tether entanglement for tethered mobile robots. One of the main risks of using a tethered connection between a mobile robot and an anchor point is that the tether may get entangled with the obstacles present in the environment or with itself. To avoid these situations, a non-entanglement constraint can be considered in the motion planning problem for tethered robots. This constraint is typically expressed as a set of specific tether configurations that must be avoided. However, the literature lacks a generally accepted definition of entanglement, with existing definitions being limited and partial in the sense that they only focus on specific instances of entanglement. In practice, this means that the existing definitions do not effectively cover all instances of tether entanglement. Our goal in this article is to bridge this gap and to provide new definitions of entanglement, which, together with the existing ones, can be effectively used to qualify the entanglement state of a tethered robot in diverse situations. The new definitions find application in motion planning for tethered robots, where they can be used to obtain more safe and robust entanglement-free trajectories.
AB - In this article we consider the problem of tether entanglement for tethered mobile robots. One of the main risks of using a tethered connection between a mobile robot and an anchor point is that the tether may get entangled with the obstacles present in the environment or with itself. To avoid these situations, a non-entanglement constraint can be considered in the motion planning problem for tethered robots. This constraint is typically expressed as a set of specific tether configurations that must be avoided. However, the literature lacks a generally accepted definition of entanglement, with existing definitions being limited and partial in the sense that they only focus on specific instances of entanglement. In practice, this means that the existing definitions do not effectively cover all instances of tether entanglement. Our goal in this article is to bridge this gap and to provide new definitions of entanglement, which, together with the existing ones, can be effectively used to qualify the entanglement state of a tethered robot in diverse situations. The new definitions find application in motion planning for tethered robots, where they can be used to obtain more safe and robust entanglement-free trajectories.
KW - entanglement avoidance
KW - motion planning
KW - tether entanglement
KW - Tethered mobile robots
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85210768691&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1109/ACCESS.2024.3507217
DO - 10.1109/ACCESS.2024.3507217
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85210768691
SN - 2169-3536
VL - 12
SP - 178153
EP - 178170
JO - IEEE Access
JF - IEEE Access
ER -