A Team of Cooperative Ground / Aerial Robots

Abstract — This paper introduces a new class of heteroge-neous multi-robot systems composed of mobile ground robots and aerial vehicles, capable of physically connecting to each other by means of a tethered cable on an as-needed basis. The main advantage of this architecture is that it allows energy supply over the link, which leads to a significant increase in the overall operational endurance of the system while preserving good manipulability in terms of reachable task space. Physical connection may also allow the exchange of forces enhancing the ability to perform maneuvers otherwise impossible for the single platform. The physical constraints arising from the linkage can also be used to enhance the safety of the overall system by reducing the task space of a given unit in order to prevent undesired collisions with obstacles or humans. Additionally, the cable might even provide a high speed and reliable communication channel between units