To build a Tensegrity tower, we have to do an immense amount of research. So let me tell you what we found out so far. Even though we focused on towers in our case, there is no certain way that a tensegrity structure has to look. This principle can also be applied to spheres and arches for example. When analyzing this type of tower you quickly realize that there are always repeating patterns structured in layers. These layers are called simplices, which come in many different shapes. One shape commonly used for tensegrity towers is the antiprism. By having the same simplex stacked on top of each other and slightly rotated in each layer, you get an extremely lightweight, but still robust tower. In a perfect tensegrity tower, elements of compression are only connected by elements of tension. As a result, you would get “Islands of compression in an ocean of tension.”(- Fuller). What’s great about tensegrity is, that it spans across many fields of science. Fuller, the inventor of tensegrity, even claimed that “All structures, properly understood, from the solar system to the atom, are tensegrity structures. Universe is omnitensional integrity.”. This sounds amazing and not something that we could wrap our heads around easily. We stumbled upon many examples of tensegrity outside of architecture. Something that might interest you, as this is a robotics blog after all, is that NASA made a tensegrity robot, which can change its elasticity by making the strings connecting the “sticks” tighter or looser. This way, the robot can drop safely from great heights without any damage, but still move when it’s on the ground. Some even claim that tensegrity might even be the future of robotics. That’s really interesting and we were happy that we got to research all this for Junior.ING.
(author: Emilie)