Information Exchange in Tethered Vehicle Systems

This paper describes a generalized set of exchange requirements for tethered vehicle control, power, status and information signals. From these requirements, several different approaches for achieving the necessary exchange are discussed. Cable diameter, cable length and information requirements are traded off against cost, reliability complexity and performance for several different encoding and transmission methods. The relative advantages and disadvantages of several modulation methods for a typical operating environment are examined. Acceptable binary error rates are considered. Methods of reducing unacceptable error rates such as error detecting and correcting codes are briefly presented. Due to the broad nature of the subject, an in-depth analysis is not possible; rather a broad systems overview is provided and, instead of developing proofs for conclusions, references are cited and stated conclusions are assumed valid. This paper is more concerned with system design impact of these conclusions than proof of validity.