Design and analysis of a tensegrity mechanism for a bio-inspired robot

Swaminath Venkateswaran (1, 2, 3) , Matthieu Furet (1, 2, 3) , Damien Chablat (1, 2) , Philippe Wenger (1, 2)

1 LS2N - Laboratoire des Sciences du Numérique de Nantes
2 LS2N - équipe ReV - Robotique Et Vivant
3 ECN - École Centrale de Nantes

Piping inspection robots are of greater interests in industries such as nuclear, chemical and sewage. The design of such robots is highly challenging owing to factors such as locomo-tion inside pipes with varying diameters, cable management,and complex pipe bends (or) junctions. A rigid bio-inspired caterpillar type piping inspection robot was developed at LS2N, France. By introducing tensegrity mechanisms and four-bar wheel mechanisms , the design of this robot is modified into a reconfigurable system. The tensegrity mechanism employs a passive universal joint with three tension springs and three cables for actuation. The positioning of the end effector with respect to the base of the mechanism plays an important role in determining the maximum tilt angle (or) bending limit of the system. By workspace analysis of three case studies, the best solution is chosen which generates the maximum tilt. A static force analysis is then performed on the mechanism to determine its stability under the influences of preload. By the modification of design parameters, stable configurations are determined followed by which cable actuation of mechanism is analyzed for estimating applied forces.

Domaines: Automatique / Robotique

Swaminath Venkateswaran, Matthieu Furet, Damien Chablat, Philippe Wenger. Design and analysis of a tensegrity mechanism for a bio-inspired robot. The ASME 2019 International Design Engineering Technical Conferences & Computers and Information in Engineering Conference IDETC/CIE 2019, Aug 2019, Annaheim, California, United States, Aug 2019, Annaheim, CA, United States. ⟨10.1115/DETC2019-97544⟩. ⟨hal-02189437⟩