Design and control of tensegrity morphing airfoils

摘要

We present a general approach of design, dynamics, and control for tensegrity morphing airfoils. Firstly, based on reduced order Class-k tensegrity dynamics, a shape control law for tensegrity systems is derived. Then, we develop a method for discretizing continuous airfoil curves based on shape accuracy. This method is compared with conventional methods (i.e. evenly spacing and cosine spacing methods). A tensegrity topology for shape controllable airfoil is proposed. A morphing tensegrity airfoil example is given to demonstrate successful shape control. This work paves a road towards integrating structure and control design, the principles developed here can also be used for 3D morphing airfoil design and control of various kinds of tensegrity structures. Published by Elsevier Ltd.