Distributed Control for Tensegrity Robots

Exploration of our solar system increasingly involves physical interaction with the environment, requiring innovation in fields such as robotic manipulation (TA 4.2.1.3: New forms of sample handling, digging, grappling, etc) and extreme terrain access (TA 4.2.1.2: New means of accessing the sides of cliffs, craters, and other extreme locations). In both cases, NASA desires lightweight (TA 12.2.2.1), deployable (TA 12.2.3.1), and reliable devices (TA 12.2.2.3). Thus, the long term goal of this work is to develop actively controlled tensegrity structures and devices, which can be deployed from a small volume and used in a variety of applications including limbs used for grappling and manipulating the environment or used as a stabilizing and balancing limb during extreme terrain access.