Kinematics, Dynamics and Control of a Planar 3-DOF Tensegrity Robot Manipulator

In this paper the kinematic and the dynamic analysis, and a nonlinear control strategy for a planar three-degree-of-freedom tensegrity robot manipulator are addressed. A geometric method is used to obtain the set of equations that describe the position analysis. Initially, solutions to the problems concerning forward and reverse kinematic analysis are presented; then, the forward velocity coefficients matrix is obtained analytically. The Lagrangian approach is used to deduce the dynamic equation of motion and its main properties are described using the nonlinear control system theory. Finally, a feedback-linearization-based nonlinear control scheme is applied to the mechanism to follow a prescribed path in the Cartesian coordinate system. The obtained results show that lightweight mechanisms which incorporate tensegrity systems could be used in a positioning problem.