Kinematics, Singularity, and Workspaces of a Planar 4-Bar Tensegrity Mechanism. (25th March 2014)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Ji, Zhifei; Li, Tuanjie; Lin, Min
• Other Names: Pennock Gordon R. Academic Editor.
• Is Part Of: Journal of robotics. Volume 2014(2014)
• Publication Date: 2014-03-25
• Subjects: Robotics -- Periodicals; Robotics; Periodicals; 629.892
• DOI: 10.1155/2014/967251
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1687-9600

Abstract

Abstract : Compared with conventional mechanisms, tensegrity mechanisms have many attractive characteristics such as light weight, high ratio of strength to weight, and accuracy of modeling. In this paper, the kinematics, singularity, and workspaces of a planar 4-bar tensegrity mechanism have been investigated. Firstly, the analytical solutions to the forward and inverse kinematic problems are found by using an energy based method. Secondly, the definition of a tensegrity mechanism's Jacobian is introduced. As a consequence, the singularity analysis of the planar 4-bar tensegrity mechanism has been completed. Thirdly, the actuator and output workspaces are mapped. Finally, some attractive characteristics of the mechanism are concluded.