Analysis of Passive Dynamic Gait of Tensegrity Robot

Abstract

Rigid robots can easily achieve high-precision motions with the help of precis mathematical models. Although soft robots are characterized by high environmental adaptability and collision-resistant, it is not easy to use high-precision mathematical models due to the soft elements and the high degree of freedom. We are inspired by the tensegrity structure that is light, soft, collision-resistant and the most significant point is that it has the features of both rigid structure and soft structure. Therefore, by considering the tensegrity robot, in this article, to combine soft robots with rigid robots we propose the simplest model for generating the passive dynamic walking gait of the tensegrity robot on a gentle downhill. Firstly the mathematical method is estimated and the theoretical analysis of passive dynamic walking gait by numerical simulations is proved that the limit cycle gaits can be generated even in different physical parameters. We also discuss the convergence and chaos of its gaits. Our work provides a mathematical method to connect soft robots and rigid robots, and the conclusion is given through the limit cycle gait generated by the tensegrity robot.