Kinetic structures of cyclic knots and links as further development of tensegrity principle

摘要

The paper explores knots and links of resilient filaments and their connection with tensegrity structures. "Classical" tensegrity of compressed struts and stretched tendons derives from basic principle of woven structures and X modules, which correspond with contacting crossings of resilient knots and links. Vertical and horizontal bending of X modules and joining together their free ends make it possible to substitute tensegrity systems of separated compressed and stretched elements with a complex resilient bended structures with pure compression in the contact points of their crossings. Such structures topologically equivalent to complicated cyclic knots and links and can transform in space taking on the shapes of different surfaces.