In the field of underwater robotics, tethers are the dominant method used to provide real time communication with underwater vehicles. Estimating their shape is a key element in preventing entanglements and limiting their mechanical effects on the vehicles. In addition, the tether shape constrains the pose of the vehicle at its attachment point, and could thus be used for vehicle localization purposes given an accurate tether model. This work focuses on a simple model of flexible non-rigid hanging cables, namely the catenary model, and presents an experimental evaluation of the validity of this model to approximate the shape of dynamically moving underwater tethers with negative buoyancy using motion tracking.
- Juliette Drupt, Claire Dune, Andrew I. Comport, Vincent Hugel. Validity of the catenary model for moving submarine cables with negative buoyancy. 3rd workshop on RObotic MAnipulation of Deformable Objects: challenges in perception, planning and control for Soft Interaction (ROMADO-SI),, Oct 2022, Kyoto, Japan. – Best Paper ⟨hal-03841238⟩