Design of a spherical tensegrity robot for dynamic locomotion

Abstract

This work presents a novel spherical tensegrity robot, T12-R, which is designed and prototyped based on a twelve-rod tensegrity structure that resembles a rhombicuboctahedron. The geometry of T12-R allows for fast rolling and a detailed description of the robot design is provided. A simulation study of T12-R shows that the robot is capable of performing static locomotion. Control strategies for achieving dynamic locomotion in hardware are discussed.