Request pdf rapid prototyping design and control of tensegrity soft robot for locomotion corobots that can effectively move with and operate alongside humans in a. A tensegrity structure can flex, stretch, compress when dropped or pressed, and then spring back into shape. Buckminster fuller, building on the highly original sculptures of kenneth snelson, coined the term, to indicate that the integrity of the structure derived from the balance of tension members, not the compression struts. System design and locomotion of superball, an untethered. There are several advantages to a balllike design and thats why nasas innovative. Exploiting dynamical complexity in a physical tensegrity. At the heart of this meeting will be presentations from four leading researchers who have received nasa grants to pursue tensegrity and soft robotics related technologies. Prototype of a tensegrity robot with nine wires for switching. Pdf adaptive and resilient soft tensegrity robots researchgate. Tensegrity robots were originally developed in the context of space exploration by researchers at nasa ames. Although wheeled locomotion provides better efficiency over distances there is no literature available on.
In a fun reversal, our science fact research has been turned into science fiction neal stephenson has including rolling tensegrity robots modeled off our superball design in his. Body deformation of tensegrity structure robots in this section, we discuss the methods by which a robotic bodywith tensegrity structure, made of struts and strings, can be deformed. Tr3, based on a triangular tensegrity prism with three struts, and tr4, based on a quadrilateral tensegrity prism with four struts. The paper introduces a design methodology for fabricating tensegrity robots of varying morphologies with modular components. In this work, we show how locomotion gaits can be learned automatically using a novel extension of mirror descent guided policy search mdgps applied to periodic locomotion movements, and we demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach on tensegrity robot locomotion. That, together with its resilience, makes tensegrity a useful framework for robots that need to withstand jolts or squeeze and twist themselves through. Build a simple robot with a tensegrity structure make. Learning to control complex tensegrity robots intelligent systems. A new model of the spine uses a tensegritytruss system that will model the spine right side up, upsidedown or in any position, static or dynamic. Efforts in the research of tensegrity structures applied to mobile robots have recently been focused on a purely tensegrity solution to all design requirements. Robust learning of tensegrity robot control for locomotion. Tensegrity, the word itself, is a blending of tension and integrity.
Agogino 2, aliakbar toghyan, deaho moon 1, laqshya taneja, and alice m. The tensegrity robot consisting of rigid rods and flexible wires can vary its shape by changing rod or wirelengths or both. Adaptive and resilient soft tensegrity robots soft robotics. This survey considers the computational modeling of the dynamics and controls of tensegrity robots. Creating a tensegrity robot that can move robotics. Orki o 2012 a model of caterpillar locomotion based on assur tensegrity structures msc thesis telaviv university, telaviv, il. Buckmister fuller invented tensegrity, and a lot of other interesting ideas and popularized the term spaceship earth.
This work presents the progress our tools have made in tackling the design and control challenges of spherical tensegrity structures. Tensegrity robot could be creeping through your ducts. Learning tensegrity locomotion using openloop control. Sabelhaus1, jonathan bruce2, ken caluwaerts3, pavlo manovi2, roya fallah firoozi1, sarah dobi1, alice m.
In addition, gorilla type robot systems are described as hardware of multilocomotion robotic system. Agogino1, senior member, ieee abstractthis work presents a novel spherical tensegrity robot, t12r, which is designed and prototyped based on a. Agogino abstract robots based on tensegrity structures have the. In contrast to the pyramids, columns, and brickonbrick buildings of the past, which pile solid. Rapid prototyping design and control of tensegrity soft.
Prototype of a tensegrity robot with nine wires for. Tensegrity robot locomotion under limited sensory inputs. Well, nasa is seriously working on robots based on these principles, for space exploration, which they call superball bot tensegrity planetary lander. Request pdf design and control of tensegrity robots for locomotion the static properties of tensegrity structures have been widely. Design and control of tensegrity robots for locomotion article in ieee transactions on robotics 225. But as far as i know he didnt get around to inventing tensegrity robots. The mit press is a leading publisher of books and journals at the intersection of science, technology, and the arts. System design and locomotion of superball, an untethered tensegrity robot andrew p. For each of these robots, simulation models are designed, and automatic design of controllers for forward locomotion are performed in simulation using evolutionary algorithms. Adaptive and resilient soft tensegrity robots arxiv.
Presented locomotion of tensegrity robots at sustainable flexible automation technical committee of institute of systems, control and information engineers. Learning to control complex tensegrity robots extended. Rapid prototyping design and control of tensegrity soft robot for locomotion. These robots perform motion mostly by alternating between di erent con gurations and doing small hops and. Despite these advantages, challenges remain relating to ease of fabrication, shape morphing packingunpacking, and locomotion capabilities.
Proposal for grantinaid for scientific research dynamics in rolling and jumping of tensegrity structures was accepted. The emerging field of morphological computation seeks to understand how mechanical complexity in living systems can be advantageous, for instance by reducing the cost of control. Citeseerx document details isaac councill, lee giles, pradeep teregowda. Our project explored a potential solution to the problem. In this project, seven meng students split into two groups to build two prototypes. Viability of tensegrity robots in space exploration. Its a mechanism fingers acting as a mind a phenomenon called morphological computation that john rieffel, assistant professor of computer science, is exploring with tensegrity robots.
Soft spherical tensegrity robots are novel steerable mobile robotic platforms that are compliant, lightweight, and robust. Paul et al shows two different tensegrity robots that can perform a locomotion movement. Design and control of tensegrity robots for locomotion request pdf. We apply miller index in crystallography to describe the gait of a prototype, and then. It is useful for students and researchers in the field of robotics in general, bioinspired robots, multimodal locomotion, legged walking, motion control, and humanoid robots. Rolling locomotion of cabledriven soft spherical tensegrity robots. Tensegrity robots are composed of rigid rods connected by elastic cables, and their unique lightweight yet compliant structure makes them an appealing choice for space exploration. Tensegrity structures built from interconnected rods and cables have the potential to offer a revolutionary new robotic design that is lightweight, energyefficient, robust to failures, capable of unique modes of locomotion, impact tolerant, and compliant reducing damage between the robot and its environment. It also has a high degree of compliance, which means it wont harm people or equipment around it.
Design of a spherical tensegrity robot for dynamic locomotion. Nasa tensegrity and soft robotics technical exchange 2016. Learning tensegrity locomotion using openloop control signals and coevolutionary algorithms. The robots in this field are not hard robots basically the robot everyone is familiar withhard shells, heavy duty motors at every joint, etc. Tensegrity is a term with a rich and sprawling history. One weakness of vibrationbased approaches to locomotion is that vibration of.
Deep reinforcement learning for tensegrity robot locomotion. Many models of tensegrity robots can be found in the literature. This survey also argues for merging tensegrity robotics with soft robotics. Design of a spherical tensegrity robot for dynamic locomotion kyunam kim 1, deaho moon2, jae young bin, and alice m. Paul et al shows two di erent tensegrity robots that can perform a locomotion movement. Design and control of compliant tensegrity robots through.
Locomotion systems based on tensegrity structures are currently slow and complex to control. More recently, researchers have begun investigating more dynamical methods of tensegrity robot control. Using the tensegrity robotics simulator that we have been developing over the last year, we have been exploring biologically inspired tensegrity robots. These robots perform motion mostly by alternating between. This paper introduces robots based on tensegrity structures, which demonstrate that the dynamics of such structures can be utilized for locomotion. Modeling of caterpillar crawl using novel tensegrity structures. We focus on this shape since it lends itself to rolling locomotion. Keywords natural systems robots tensegrity structure. In a fun reversal, our science fact research has been turned into science fiction neal stephenson has including rolling tensegrity robots modeled off our superball design in his newest. An added benefit of vibrational locomotion for soft robotics is that, although our current robot is tethered, it could in principle be easy to power soft tensegrity robots with an embedded battery, by contrast with the many fluidactuated soft robots, 4,8 which need innovative ways to store energy. A survey of the computational modeling and control of. Tensegrity robots, composed of rigid rods connected by elastic cables, have a number of unique properties that make them appealing for use as planetary exploration rovers. Crawling by body deformation of tensegrity structure robots. One of the descriptions used by the nasa innovative advanced concepts niac program that has supported our research for the last three years is.
Robustness, compactness, and portability of tensegrity robots make them suitable candidates for locomotion on unknown terrains. Tension and integrity tensegrity a balance of tension. Figure 3 shows a cablegraph 12 of a threestrut tensegrity system. As in all truss systems, there are no levers and no moments at the joints. Most related to the work in this paper are approaches to locomotion of tensegrity robots using evolutionary algorithms 1. Viability of tensegrity robots in space exploration page 1 1 introduction 1.
Robust learning of tensegrity robot control for locomotion through formfinding kyunam kim 1, adrian k. We take the model of the spherical underactuated planetary exploration robot ball. Kinematic and static analysis of a novel tensegrity robot. Distributed control for tensegrity robots vytas sunspiral nasa ames research center intelligent systems division 1 motivation and nasa relevance exploration of our solar system increasingly involves physical interaction with the environment. Compact shape morphing tensegrity robots capable of locomotion. Newswise before a signal even reaches your brain, your fingers can adjust the tension required to lift an object with their tendons. However, control of tensegrity robots remains a difficult problem due to their unusual structures and complex dynamics. Tensegrity fung institute for engineering leadership. We take the model of the spherical underactuated planetary exploration robot ball superball, an icosahedron tensegrity robot under production at nasa ames research center, develop a rolling locomotion algorithm, and study the learned behavior using an accurate model of the superball simulated in the nasa tensegrity robotics toolkit. Lately, researchers have begun investigating more dynamical methods of tensegrity robot control. Modeling of caterpillar crawl using novel tensegrity. However, locomotion control for these robotic systems remains difficult due to their nonlinear dynamics and highdimensional state space.
The use of mechanically compliant tensegrity structures in vibrationdriven mobile robots is an attractive research topic, due to the principal possibility to adjust their dynamic properties reversibly during locomotion. In this paper, we propose that a deformable robot with a tensegrity structure can crawl and describe its performance in practical experiments and a gait description. The geometry of these robots is suitable for rolling locomotion, and they achieve this motion by properly deforming their structures using carefully chosen actuation strategies. In this paper we explore the phenomenon of morphological computation in tensegrities unique structures with a high. In a tensegritytruss model, the loads distribute through the system only in tension or compression. Most related to the work in this paper are approaches to locomotion of tensegrity robots using evolutionary algorithms 5. Best locomotion speed, power consumption, and cost of transport for the gait that corresponds to. In this paper, a new type of class 1 tensegrity robots, named as fusiform tensegrity robots ftrs, are proposed. However, control of tensegrity robots remains a difficult problem due to their unusual structures and. This paper presents a prototype tensegrity, which can vary its shape to switch between two types of locomotion rolling and gain. These robots perform motion mostly by alternating between different.
Like many other soft robots, this tensegrity robot is resilient, and can resist damage. Paul et al 3 shows two di erent tensegrity robots that can perform a locomotion movement. It was coined by buckminster fuller, the iconoclastic architect, engineer, and poet, to describe his vision of a new kind of architecture, one that looked like it was built by nature instead of by humans. Another recent development which feeds the augmented design approach is deep reinforcement learning for tensegrity robot locomotion zhang 2017. Rolling locomotion of deformable tensegrity structure. Vibration has been proposed as a means of controlling much softer robots as well berger et al. Our initial focus is on a snake or spine like tensegrity robot, which is inspired by the models of a tensegrity spine created by tom flemons. Tensegrity rovers incorporate design principles that give rise to many desirable properties, such as adaptability and robustness, while also creating challenges in terms of locomotion control. Design and control of tensegrity robots for locomotion ieee xplore. Could the next planetary rover be a super ball bot.