Use of a Deformable Tensegrity Structure as an Underwater Robot Body

Abstract

The locomotion of underwater robots depends on their shapes. Underwater robots for inspecting undersea structures must not only move long distances but must rotate during inspection. We propose using an underwater robot that moves translationally and rotationally by altering its shape. In this paper, we introduce a deformable twisted trigonal prism tensegrity structure as a robot and evaluate its use as an underwater robot through several simplified models and experimental results.