Active shaping of a tensegrity robot via pre-pressure

Abstract

This paper describes active shaping of a tensegrity robot by pre-pressure applied to pneumatic actuators that drive the robot. The pre-pressure helps to reduce unevenness of deformation properties of pneumatic actuators. We experimentally examined if transitions among contacts can be performed under pre-pressure using our prototype of a six-strut tensegrity robot. Based on the experimental results, we have found that all transitions between two neighboring contacts can be performed by activating one of twelve actuator pairs.