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Mechanical Engineering
SMASH Lab
Smart Materials and Shock Lab

Cluster Tensegrity Robots

How does replacing multiple strings with a single string affect the control of tensegrity robots?

Tensegrity structures are increasingly being used in robotics because of their high strength to weight ratio and their ability to distribute forces throughout the entire structure. Understanding the shape of the structure and how forces are distributed is essential for control, effective design, and use of tensegrity structures in robotics applications, but because of how they distribute the forces throughout, it deforms the structure in complicated ways.

We are starting by limiting our research to 2D tensegrities so we can simplify the design and the math needed to describe the structure. If the cells are small enough, we can treat them individually acting in 2D even though they are part of a larger 3D structure.

Model & Simulation

We are developing a package in python to model and simulate these tensegrity structures. The current public release is available here. The simulation reads in a configuration file containing the tensegrity structure setup and allows the user to simulate controlling strings with motors.

Prototyping and Testing

Currently the prototyping and testing is shared with the tensegrisleeve project and includes the development of novel TPU nodes.

Publications

T.C.P. Masmeijer, C.C. Swain, J.R. Hill, E. Habtour, Programming tension in 3D-printed networks inspired by spiderwebs, Materials & Design, Volume 261, 2026, 115281, ISSN 0264-1275, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matdes.2025.115281.

Denning, HC, Swain, C, & Hill, JR. "Validation of Continuous Cable Tensegrity Simulation Tools." Proceedings of the ASME 2025 Conference on Smart Materials, Adaptive Structures and Intelligent Systems. ASME 2025 Conference on Smart Materials, Adaptive Structures and Intelligent Systems. St. Louis, Missouri, USA. September 8–10, 2025. V001T03A001. ASME. https://doi.org/10.1115/SMASIS2025-165500

Brown, AR, Swain, CC, Usevitch, NS, & Hill, JR. "Development of a Continuous Cable Tensegrity." Proceedings of the ASME 2024 Conference on Smart Materials, Adaptive Structures and Intelligent Systems. ASME 2024 Conference on Smart Materials, Adaptive Structures and Intelligent Systems. Atlanta, Georgia, USA. September 9–11, 2024. V001T03A002. ASME. https://doi.org/10.1115/SMASIS2024-140185