Abstract
A tensegrity is a self-stressed pin-jointed system consisting of tensile members and compressive members. As its shape can be actively controlled by changing the prestress of its members, it has great potential to be used as a shape-controllable locomotive system. Particularly, the six-strut spherical tensegrity has been studied intensively as a rolling locomotive system. In this study, the rolling gaits of a strut-actuated six-strut spherical tensegrity are investigated. Specifically, a mathematical model for generating the rolling gaits of locomotive spherical tensegrities is presented, and a numerical method combining dynamic relaxation method and genetic algorithm is used to solve the model. Various rolling gaits for the strut-actuated six-strut locomotive spherical tensegrity are identified using this approach. Two basic types of touching-ground triangles, two basic distributions of payload, and six cases for the numbers of used active struts are considered. Several rolling gait primitives are noted, their motion features analyzed, and a simple path-generating strategy is proposed based on idealized rolling gait primitives. A physical prototype of the strut-actuated six-strut locomotive tensegrity is manufactured, and experiments are conducted to verify the rolling gaits and locomotion paths generated by the proposed methods.
Highlights
A tensegrity system is a special pin-jointed structural system that consists of a set of discontinuous compressive components interacting with a set of continuous tensile components to define a stable volume in space
A physical prototype of a strut-actuated six-strut tensegrity robot based on the configuration detailed in the “Strut-Observations of rolling axes and traveling directions
Rolling gait 1 (TC–6!TO–5) in Table 7 is taken as an example of rolling around a fixed axis (Figure 13(a)), and rolling gait 5 (TC–6!TO–12) is taken as an example of rolling around a moving axis (Figure 13(b))
Summary
A tensegrity system is a special pin-jointed structural system that consists of a set of discontinuous compressive components interacting with a set of continuous tensile components to define a stable volume in space. A distinguishing feature of the tensegrity is that its shape can be actively controlled by the prestress in the members, which makes it a good candidate for structural systems requiring controllable shapes, such as smart structures, deployable structures, and locomotive robots.. To search for the optimal rolling gaits for the six-strut locomotive tensegrity system, the parameters of the GA are set as follows: the population size is 50; the maximum allowed generation is 100; and the generation gap, crossover rate, and mutation rate are 0.8, 0.7, and 0.01, respectively. To reduce the effect of the uncertainties of connections and fabrication error, more elaborate physical prototypes will be produced for future studies
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