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Article

A Symmetric Three Degree of Freedom Tensegrity Mechanism with Dual Operation Modes for Robot Actuation

Department of Electronic Engineering, University of York, Heslington, York YO10 5DD, UK
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Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Biomimetics 2021, 6(2), 30; https://doi.org/10.3390/biomimetics6020030
Submission received: 15 April 2021 / Revised: 7 May 2021 / Accepted: 14 May 2021 / Published: 18 May 2021
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Biomimetic Design and Techniques for Space Applications II)

Abstract

Tensegrity robots that use bio-inspired structures have many superior properties over conventional robots with regard to strength, weight, compliance and robustness, which are indispensable to planetary exploration and harsh environment applications. Existing research has presented various tensegrity robots with abundant capabilities in broad scenarios but mostly not focused on articulation and manipulability. In this paper, we propose a novel tensegrity mechanism for robot actuation which greatly improves the agility and efficiency compared with existing ones. The design integrates two separate tensegrity substructures inspired by shoulder and hip joints of the human body and features a similar form to a hexapod platform. It mitigates detrimental antagonistic forces in the structural network for optimising actuation controllability and efficiency. We validated the design both on a prototype and in a Chrono Engine simulation that represents the first physically accurate simulation of a wheeled tensegrity robot. It can reach up to approximately 58.9, 59.4 and 47.1 in pitch, yaw and roll motion, respectively. The mechanism demonstrates good agility and controllability as an actuated robot linkage while preserving desirable properties of tensegrity structures. The design would potentially inspire more possibilities of agile tensegrity implementations that enable future robots with enhanced compliance, robustness and efficiency without a tradeoff.
Keywords: tensegrity; robot; modular; bio-inspired; simulation; compliance tensegrity; robot; modular; bio-inspired; simulation; compliance

Share and Cite

MDPI and ACS Style

Wang, T.; Post, M.A. A Symmetric Three Degree of Freedom Tensegrity Mechanism with Dual Operation Modes for Robot Actuation. Biomimetics 2021, 6, 30. https://doi.org/10.3390/biomimetics6020030

AMA Style

Wang T, Post MA. A Symmetric Three Degree of Freedom Tensegrity Mechanism with Dual Operation Modes for Robot Actuation. Biomimetics. 2021; 6(2):30. https://doi.org/10.3390/biomimetics6020030

Chicago/Turabian Style

Wang, Tianyuan, and Mark A. Post. 2021. "A Symmetric Three Degree of Freedom Tensegrity Mechanism with Dual Operation Modes for Robot Actuation" Biomimetics 6, no. 2: 30. https://doi.org/10.3390/biomimetics6020030

APA Style

Wang, T., & Post, M. A. (2021). A Symmetric Three Degree of Freedom Tensegrity Mechanism with Dual Operation Modes for Robot Actuation. Biomimetics, 6(2), 30. https://doi.org/10.3390/biomimetics6020030

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