| dc.description.abstract | Tensegrity, a word coined by Buckminster Fuller in the 1960s, is a portmanteau of words tension
and integrity. A tensegrity structure is a prestressable network of bars and strings that can
be acted by external forces at its nodes. Tensegrity structures were initially of interest to Kenneth
Snelson who built architectural structures by interconnecting bars and strings into a stable configuration.
In the engineering world, such structures became of interest to control theory specialists
who treated tensegrity configurations as a robotic system, capable of dynamic motion with the
freedom to control the tension in the strings. With the recent escalation in computing power and
the birth of optimization algorithms for mass minimization of tensegrity, it was now possible to
design an optimal, static tensegrity structure with minimal mass for a plethora of applications.
Manipulators are devices used to point, position and place objects in space without direct human
contact. Over the years, several 2D and 3D manipulators have taken over the robotics industry
and have been employed in the manufacturing and space research sector for various applications.
This thesis focuses on a three dimensional tensegrity spatial manipulator, based on the 3 strut
tensegrity prism topology. InTense as it will be referred hereafter in this text is a tensegrity based
spatial manipulator designed to be used for pointing control applications in space.
In this research, a tensegrity based manipulator/joint design is explored. An experimental
setup of the final design is built and the tensegrity shape controller is derived and implemented
to point the manipulator towards a given vector. Results and Inferences from the theoretical and
experimental study are documented. | en |
