A modal self-excitation method of tensegrity robots

Abstract

A tensegrity robot is a type of soft-rigid system, whose high compliance is prone to induce structural vibrations which traditionally should be avoided. However, a stable limit cycle oscillation at a natural frequency can be exploited to improve motion efficiency of tensegrity robots. By constructing a modal self-excitation system, we can produce limit cycle oscillation for tensegrity robots. Therefore, in this paper, we propose a method to realize modal self-excitation of underactuated tensegrity robots. A task-space second-order structural model of a tensegrity robot is developed and a mapping between forces of cable-space and that of task-space is derived. Meanwhile, we propose a cable sensitivity vector from modal shape to guide the selection of active cables in the tensegrity robot. A modal self-excitation system is designed by combining a bandpass filter with a describing function into the control system. In this way, a limit cycle oscillation at a frequency can be formed close to the desired natural frequency. The stability of this limit cycle oscillation is analyzed by perturbation method. Modal switching excitation is also achieved by switching between different modal excitation loops online. The effectiveness of the proposed modal self-excitation method for tensegrity robots is verified by several numerical simulations and tests.