The driving of the six-bar tensegrity robot

Abstract

Six-bar tensegrity structure has the advantages of low weight, simple driving and strong bearing capacity. Based on the six-bar tensegrity structure, a simulation model of spherical tensegrity robot is established in Adams software. By controlling the bar's length of the simulation robot, the robot motion is realized and the change of the displacement of each node during the motion progress is studied. Finally, a physical model is built. In the physical model, the linear motor is used to instead of the bar component, and all the strings are replaced by springs. The simulation model is validated by this physical model. The results of experiment show that the spherical tensegrity robot can be driven by controlling the length of two bars in contact with the ground.