Rapid prototyping design and control of tensegrity soft robot for locomotion

Abstract

Co-robots that can effectively move with and operate alongside humans in a variety of conditions could revolutionize the utility of robots for a wide range of applications. Unfortunately, most current robotic systems have difficulty operating in human environments that people easily traverse, much less interact with people. Wheeled robots have difficulty climbing stairs or going over rough terrain. Heavy and powerful legged robots pose safety risks when interacting with humans. Compliant, lightweight tensegrity robots built from interconnected tensile (cables) and compressive (rods) elements are promising structures for co-robotic applications. This paper describes design and control of a rapidly prototyped tensegrity robot for locomotion. The software and hardware of this robot can be extended to build a wide range of tensegrity robotic configurations and control strategies. This rapid prototyping approach will greatly lower the barrier-of-entry in time and cost for research groups studying tensegrity robots suitable for co-robot applications.