MECHANISM DESIGN AND MOTION CONTROL SYSTEM REALIZATION FOR 6-STRUT TENSEGRITY ROBOTS

摘要

The 6-strut tensegrity robot(TR-6) consists of 6 discreternrigid struts and 24 continuously elastic cables. The TR-6rncan roll, crawl or even jump by self-deformations. As thernself-weight impacts the stability and deformability of thernTR-6, light-weight mechanism design is required, and mostrnof the existing TR-6 are driven by Pneumatic Muscle Actu-rnators. However, the external air supply and the tubes limitrnthe mobility. Electric prototypes solve the problem above,rnyet they have to sacrifices the controllability by reducingrnthe number of actuators to lower the self-weight.rnIn this paper, an all actuated electric prototype is de-rnsigned and three questions in the design of mechanismrnand motion control system are solved. Firstly, the internalrnbatteries and motors increase the self-weight and requiresrngreater driving torque. Servo motors are used to replace thernDC motors for higher torque-weight ratio. Secondly, wire-rnless modules are mounted on the independent struts to com-rnmunicate between the discrete electric devices. Thirdly, thernratio of the elastic and nonelastic part of the cables and thernelastic coefficient of the cables is taken into considerationrnto guarantee both the deformability and stability.