DuCTT: A tensegrity robot for exploring duct systems

Friesen, Jeffrey M.; Pogue, Alexandra; Bewley, Thomas; Oliveira, Maurı́cio C. de; Skelton, Robert E.; SunSpiral, Vytas

doi:10.1109/icra.2014.6907473

Cited by 67 publications

(57 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…Ongoing work at the NASA Ames Research Center has begun developing a more advanced version of a spooledcable actuation system for autonomous space exploration [26], [31]- [34]. This system is heavier than would be desirable as a co-robot due to the need to carry a heavy payload of scientific instruments, and to survive significant impact shocks of landing and high-speed dynamic locomotion.…”

Section: A Prior Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Rapid prototyping design and control of tensegrity soft robot for locomotion

Kim

Agogino

Moon

et al. 2014

2014 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Biomimetics (ROBIO 2014)

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Co-robots that can effectively move with and operate alongside humans in a variety of conditions could revolutionize the utility of robots for a wide range of applications. Unfortunately, most current robotic systems have difficulty operating in human environments that people easily traverse, much less interact with people. Wheeled robots have difficulty climbing stairs or going over rough terrain. Heavy and powerful legged robots pose safety risks when interacting with humans. Compliant, lightweight tensegrity robots built from interconnected tensile (cables) and compressive (rods) elements are promising structures for co-robotic applications. This paper describes design and control of a rapidly prototyped tensegrity robot for locomotion. The software and hardware of this robot can be extended to build a wide range of tensegrity robotic configurations and control strategies. This rapid prototyping approach will greatly lower the barrier-of-entry in time and cost for research groups studying tensegrity robots suitable for co-robot applications.

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Section: A Prior Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Spine-like tensegrity structures constructed by connecting multiple segments of simpler tensegrity structures together was shown to be capable of locomotion on uneven terrains [11]. Another tensegrity robot with two linked segments was developed for exploring duct systems [26].…”

Section: A Prior Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

Rapid prototyping design and control of tensegrity soft robot for locomotion

Kim

Agogino

Moon

et al. 2014

2014 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Biomimetics (ROBIO 2014)

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“…Modern physics engines provide advantages such as the fast computation of contact dynamics [3], and new robot morphologies can be easily implemented and tested in complex environments [30], [38], [23]. Engines including ODE [27], [29], [30], Simmechanics [26], and Bullet via the NASA Tensegrity Robotics Toolkit [38], [4], [8], [17] have been used by tensegrity researchers for this purpose. Additionally, the faster run time of these engines means that machine learning algorithms can be used to determine control strategies for structures [27], [15].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Towards bridging the reality gap between tensegrity simulation and robotic hardware

Mirletz

Park

Quinn

et al. 2015

2015 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS)

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Using a new hardware implementation of our designs for tunably compliant spine-like tensegrity robots, we show that the NASA Tensegrity Robotics Toolkit can effectively generate and predict desirable locomotion strategies for these many degree of freedom systems. Tensegrity, which provides structural integrity through a tension network, shows promise as a design strategy for more compliant robots capable of interaction with rugged environments, such as a tensegrity interplanetary probe prototype surviving multi-story drops. Due to the complexity of tensegrity structures, modeling through physics simulation and machine learning improves our ability to design and evaluate new structures and their controllers in a dynamic environment. The kinematics of our simulator, the open source NASA Tensegrity Robotics Toolkit, have been previously validated within 1.3% error on position through motion capture of the six strut robot ReCTeR. This paper provides additional validation of the dynamics through the direct comparison of the simulator to forces experienced by the latest version of the Tetraspine robot. These results give us confidence in our strategy of using tensegrity to impart future robotic systems with properties similar to biological systems such as increased flexibility, power, and mobility in extreme terrains.

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“…For a novel tensegrity duct robot constructed with two linked tetrahedrons [9,10], the main focus is also on the design of climbing gaits. Through the structure design and kinematic analysis of a steering crawling tetrahedron robot which links a pushing element on one of its four nodes [11], the slope crawling gait was presented.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A two-linked tetrahedron robot adopted force density method to solve the inverse kinematics [9] for the minimum of elastic potential energy contained. In Ref.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Locomotion Optimization and Manipulation Planning of a Tetrahedron-Based Mobile Mechanism with Binary Control

Liu

Yao

Ding

et al. 2018

Chin. J. Mech. Eng.

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Locomotion and manipulation optimization is essential for the performance of tetrahedron-based mobile mechanism. Most of current optimization methods are constrained to the continuous actuated system with limited degree of freedom (DOF), which is infeasible to the optimization of binary control multi-DOF system. A novel optimization method using for the locomotion and manipulation of an 18 DOFs tetrahedron-based mechanism called 5-TET is proposed. The optimization objective is to realize the required locomotion by executing the least number of struts. Binary control strategy is adopted, and forward kinematic and tipping dynamic analyses are performed, respectively. Based on a developed genetic algorithm (GA), the optimal number of alternative struts between two adjacent steps is obtained as 5. Finally, a potential manipulation function is proposed, and the energy consumption comparison between optimal 5-TET and the traditional wheeled robot is carried out. The presented locomotion optimization and manipulation planning enrich the research of tetrahedron-based mechanisms and provide the instruction to the successive locomotion and operation planning of multi-DOF mechanisms. Keywords

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DuCTT: A tensegrity robot for exploring duct systems

Cited by 67 publications

References 7 publications

Rapid prototyping design and control of tensegrity soft robot for locomotion

Rapid prototyping design and control of tensegrity soft robot for locomotion

Towards bridging the reality gap between tensegrity simulation and robotic hardware

Locomotion Optimization and Manipulation Planning of a Tetrahedron-Based Mobile Mechanism with Binary Control

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