What are tensegrities?

Tensegrities are structures which are very lightweight and have very strong structural properties. They are created by connecting rigid bars with tensile elements. Below is an example of a standard 3-bar tensegrity with the green being rigid bars and the red representing some tensile element. In the real world, this could be something like rods of hard plastic connected by rubber bands or springs.

Because tensegrities are connected by tensile elements, they have some interesting properties. Tensegrities are stable by definition but they can wobble and resonate, which is the property that Union’s physical tensegrity is examining most closely. They can also be deformed by shortening and lengthening their tensile elements. Real world tensegrity robots have been made such that the tensile elements can change their lengths to move, so this has been proven to work. Continue reading Tensegrities in Bullet Physics →