Nonlinear Mechanics of Bioinspired Tensegrity Systems

Alex Neves Brandão Mendes

Thesis proposal presented to Programa de

Engenharia Mecânica, Coppe – UFRJ, as a partial
requirement for the doctorate candidature.

Advisor: Marcelo Amorim Savi

Rio de Janeiro
August 2020
Abstract of the Thesis proposal presented to Programa de Engenharia Mecânica,
Coppe – UFRJ, as a partial requirement for the doctorate candidature, as a partial
requirement for the scholarship grant.

NONLINEAR MECHANICS OF BIOINSPIRED TENSEGRITY SYSTEMS

Alex Neves Brandão Mendes

AUGUST/2020

Advisor: Marcelo Amorim Savi

Department: Mechanical Engineering

Tensegrity comes from the concept that the structure relies in the interaction
between tension and compression, opposing forces to maintain the structure integrity.
Tensegrity structures are self-standing, lightweight with stiffening behavior under
external loads. Biological systems present several characteristics of tensegrity structures
such as the legs of animals that usually endure various extreme situations, as impact and
vibrations. Essentially, tensegrity structures are composed by bars (struts) and strings
(cables), where the bars work under compression whereas the strings work under tension.
Animal legs have the same characteristics where the bars represent the bones while the
strings represent the tendons.

i
 SUMMARY

1. INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................... 1

2. LITERATURE REVIEW ....................................................................................... 8

1.1 TENSEGRITY BACKGROUND ...................................................................... 8

1.2 ENGINEERING APPLICATIONS ................................................................ 11

3. MATHEMATICAL MODELING ....................................................................... 12

4. CONCLUSION AND PROPOSAL ..................................................................... 15

5. REFERENCES ...................................................................................................... 17

ii
 1. INTRODUCTION

Equation Chapter (Next) Section 1

Nature is usually observed as inspiration to mankind inventions and technology.
Leonardo Da Vinci has got inspired by birds and bats to design a flying machine.
Nowadays, engineering is moving towards for mimicking the nature to elaborate design
solutions, which characterizes the bioinspired systems. Since the natural systems are
usually associated with optimal designs, it is expected that the human-made designs can
be improved in order to reach the efficiency of the biological systems. In general,
engineering design struggles on assembling the components together and make them
work in a synergistic way to constitute an efficient system. Natural systems usually
present optimal designs functioning in harmony with non-toxic and biodegradable
materials with adaptive properties. Hence, the bioinspired systems try to mimic a feature
that is present in nature, an animal, or a phenomenon. The advantages of the bioinspired
systems are plenty and they lie in the fact that nature has already selected the best designs
possible through natural selection and evolution. The advantages of the bioinspired
systems depend on the specific features but they can go from a lightweight structure,
shock absorption, material strength, among others.
Bioinspired systems are treated by different approaches described, for example,
by Benyus (1997), Passino (2006) and the Biomimicry Institute and the Biomimicry
Guild (2011). Recently, it is been drawing attention the use of tensegrity structures (TS)
composed by bars (struts) and cables (strings). In brief, the bars are subjected to
compression and the strings are subjected to tension. Some authors consider Kenneth
Snelson as the pioneer of tensegrity structures, having built the first one in 1948 as a piece
of art, a sculpture called X-piece. However, David Georges Emmerich, Richard
Buckminster and Kenneth Snelson have almost simultaneously applied to patents in
similar structures, all constituted of three bars and nine strings. Emmerich’s and Fuller’s
patents date between 1959 and 1964, while Snelson’s is dated to 1965. Later, Richard
Buckminster Fuller coined the term tensegrity, as the conjunction of the words tension
and integrity. The use of tensegrity structures to represent biological structures is often
called biotensegrity, a term given by Stephen Levin (Motro, 2003; Skelton & Oliveira,
2009; Zhang & Ohsaki, 2015; Hutson & Ward, 2016). After more than fifty years since

1
the first tensegrity has appeared, there is still not a cabal definition of it, but it is usually
defined as “islands of compression in an ocean of tension” (Fuller, 1962).
One way to visualize what is a tensegrity structure is to observe if exists an
arrangement of strings that connects and stabilizes a set of rigid bodies (Figure 1b). If the
configuration of rigid bodies cannot be stabilized by any set of strings, then it does not
constitute a tensegrity configuration (Figure 1a). A tensegrity system (Figure 1c) is
composed by any set of strings connected to a tensegrity configuration (Figure 1b)
(Skelton & Oliveira, 2009).

(a) (b) (c)

Figure 1 – Tensegrity definition: (a) not a tensegrity configuration;

(b) tensegrity configuration; (c) tensegrity system (or structure).

Tensegrity structures are also suitable to a large spectrum of scales (microscale,

mesoscale and macroscale), demonstrating to be extremely versatile. In the microscale,
tensegrity can be used to represent the Nephila Clavipes silk as depicted in Figure 2. This
spider is usually known as the golden orb weaver, producer of nature’s strongest fiber. In
the mesoscale, tensegrity structures can represent some parts of the human body, such as
elbow (Figure 3) and foot (Figure 4).

2
 (a) (b)

Figure 2 – Microscale tensegrity: (a) nephila clavipes; (b) spider web

schematic representation. (adapted from Termonia, 1994)

(a) (b)

(c)

Figure 3 – Mesoscale tensegrity: (a) elbow diagram;

(b) simplified elbow model; (c) tensegrity elbow model.
(adapted from Scarr, 2011)

3
 (a) (b)

(c)

Figure 4 – Mesoscale tensegrity: (a) foot representation;

(b) simplified foot model; (c) tensegrity foot model.
(adapted from Sun et al., 2019)

In the macroscale, tensegrity structures can represent the structure of the cosmos,
where the nodes represent the planets and their interactions are represented by invisible
bars and strings members. Due to the broadness of tensegrity structures, since their
beginning as art works, their applications have been consistently increasing in a large
variety of fields.
Smart materials can be synergistic combined with tensegrity creating adaptive
self-expandable structures. In addition, one can even attempt to use an origami or a
kirigami structure in consonance with the tensegrity. The bars and strings can represent
the bones and the muscles, and origami (or kirigami) structure can define the clothing that
represents the skin. Based on this idea, the whole animal can serve as a design inspiration.
Figure 5 shows examples of tensegrity and kirigami structures that could be combined as
just mentioned.

4
 (a) (b)

(c) (d)

Figure 5 – (a) Trigonal tensegrity prism; (b) various tensegrity

prisms; (c) hexagon twisted-coupled Kirigami (flexigami);
(d) various polygons-base flexigami. (adapted from Scarr, 2011 and
Nayakanti et al., 2017)

Wu et al. (2015) and Pan et al. (2018) have got inspired by birds’ legs to develop
a 2D structure (planar structure) and explored its softening and stiffening properties for
vibration isolation, but they have not utilized the tensegrity concepts.

The proposal deals with the analysis of a Minimal Regular Tensegrity Prism (T-
Prism) to represent an animal leg. A T-Prism can be generated from a twisted regular

5
dihedron of any number of sides p . The twist is necessary to make the structure stable
and, without it, the structure would fall off limp. The twist angle is responsible to alter
the geometry and the forces distribution along the structure. In the case of a trigonal
 
dihedron ( p = 3 ), the twist angle is   , and the resultant tensegrity structure is
6 2
called a simplex tensegrity for being the simplest 3D tensegrity structure possible. Figure
6 shows an analogy for the construction of the tensegrity prism structure from a trigonal
dihedron. Figure 6a shows the starting dihedron, then its top face is twisted (Figure 6b)
and, after that, the bars are diagonally put on the side faces of the twisted dihedron (Figure
6c). Next, the horizontal (bottom and top) strings are tied to the bars (Figure 6d) and
finally the vertical strings (Figure 6e). Now, eliminating the solid dihedron, only the
tensegrity prism structure remains (Figure 6f).

(a) (b) (c)

(d) (e) (f)

Figure 6 – Tensegrity prism construction analogy: (a) dihedron;

(b) twisted dihedron; (c) bars assembly;
(d) horizontal strings assembly; (e) vertical strings assembly;
(f) tensegrity prism.

6
 The tensegrity prism is modeled considering the possibility of using strings made
of smart materials (SM), e.g., Shape Memory Alloys (SMA), to confer adaptability for
the system. Analysis regarding different height, radius, bars and strings stiffness are
performed. The analysis target the investigation of the structure stiffness in the vertical
direction for compression resistance.
The work is structured in three chapters. After this introduction, where the main
features of the tensegrity structures are presented as well as some examples of applied
tensegrity. The second chapter is devoted to the literature review, and presents a survey
of the works that have been made in the field of tensegrity structures.
The third chapter is dedicated to the conclusion of the research proposal.

7
 2. LITERATURE REVIEW

The present chapter is concerned to a literature review about tensegrity structures,

their features, definitions, capabilities, advantages, shortfalls and impact in the
engineering field. Next, the aforementioned subjects are presented in a topic related
manner. Equation Section (Next)

1.1 TENSEGRITY BACKGROUND

Zhang and Ohsaki (2015) presented a general overview of tensegrity structures,

describing them as pin-jointed structures where their members only carry axial loads,
even when no external forces are applied. When no load is applied, tensegrity structures
fall into the category of presstressed or self-stressed structures. More than that, tensegrity
structures are known to possess two types of members, compressive ones and tensile ones.
The compressive members are considered as bars (or struts), while the tensile ones are
considered as cables (or strings). Struts tend to push their end nodes away, while strings
tend to pull them back in. This interaction of opposing forces (tractive and compressive)
in the structure establishes force balance state at each node. This state is called self-
equilibrium state and the correlated configuration is called self-equilibrated
configuration. The difficulty in determining the self-equilibrated configuration lies in the
fact that the spatial equilibrium configuration and the prestresses are interdependent on
each other. This feature is very different from the usual design of trusses (bar-joint
structures), which carry no prestress. The interdependency between the spatial
equilibrium configuration and the prestresses creates the need of determining the shape
and the prestresses of the structure, this problem is called form-finding or shape-finding.
A handful of form-finding methods can be encountered in Tibert and Pellegrino (2011).
In addition, usually a tensegrity structure is unstable in the absence of prestress, hence,
creating an even more challenging situation in the form-finding problem. In the process
of form-finding it is important to guarantee that the configuration is stable, this happens
so because tensegrity structures are usually kinematically indeterminate and maintain its
stability with the minimum possible number of members.

8
 Skelton and Oliveira (2009) stated that the goal of the tensegrity structure design,
although not mandatory, is to assure that the members are unidirectionally loaded, so that
no member has to serve both compressive and tensile functions. Hence, the strings only
carry tension, but when compression force is applied they go slack. When slacking of the
strings happen, it is worthy to consider replacing it for a bar and vice-versa, if a bar goes
under traction, it is worthwhile consider replacement by a string. However, in the place
of a string one could consider an element that can undergo compression as well as tension
without slacking, e.g., a spring. Although, in most scenarios, the string is considered.
Bansod et al. (2014) present an overview of tensegrity structures and highlight its
main features as being self-standing modulated structures having a higher load-bearing
capacity with similar weight or as being lightweight with similar resistance if compared
to conventional structures. Self-standing structures are those whom do not need to be
anchored or have to lean in any surface, since they are stable by its tensile and
compressive members through the means of prestresses structures. In addition, modulated
structures are those whom are made of elementary modules that can be used to assemble
structures that are more complex. Furthermore, Tensegrities are sensitive to vibrations
under dynamic loading, thus slight changes in load causes the structure to redistribute the
stress in the whole structure instantaneously, making the structure to respond as whole.
The load-deformation response of the structure is nonlinear and its stiffness increases
rapidly with the load. The main advantages of the tensegrity structures lie in the fact that
since the load is distributed in the whole structure, there are no critical points; they can
naturally adapt itself to deformations and vibrations, hence, are very interesting for
developing smart structures, sensors and actuators; larger, tending to the infinity,
structures can be built from elementary blocks. Therefore, they are highly resilient and at
the same time very economical. In contrast, the major disadvantage of the tensegrity
structures is the fabrication complexity and assembly, also there is a lack of adequate
design tools available and as the structure grows in quantity of members it becomes hard
to avoid interference between bars, in other words, to avoid that they touch each other.
The authors classify tensegrity structures into three main categories: tensegrity prism,
diamond tensegrity and zig-zag tensegrity. Another way of classifying is into four main
categories based on its basic tendon patterns of construction: spherical system, star
system, irregular system and cylindrical system. The overview focuses on the spherical
systems due its large-scale application in generating a broad variety of tensegrity

9
structures. Spherical systems can be further subdivided into three categories: rhombic,
circuit and zig-zag configurations, as depicted in Figure 7.

(a) (b) (c)

(d) (e) (f)

Figure 7 – Spherical tensegrity systems:

(a) Rhombic; (b) Circuit (Cuboctahedron tensegrity);
(c) Zig-Zag (Truncated Tetrahedron); (d) Rhombic pattern;
(e) Circuit pattern; (f) Zig-zag pattern.

Generally, rhombic configuration corresponds to the diamond tensegrity. Nonetheless,

tensegrity prism (T-prism) and tensegrity icosahedron (T-icosahedron) are examples of
rhombic configurations, where the rhombus represents a non-planar quadrilateral formed
by the tendons. While, Circuit configurations generally correspond to closing the
rhombus generated by struts and tendons of the diamond tensegrity pattern, for example,
the T-icosahedron. Meantime, the Z-type (Zig-Zag) configuration utilizes the rhombic
configuration by connecting both ends of any strut by three non-aligned tendons to form
a Z shape, e.g., truncated icosahedron. More details on the specific features of each
individual class can be found in the original article by Bansod et al. (2014).
Due to the broadness of tensegrity structures is rather difficult to classify perfectly
all the possible structures existent, then other classifications may arise and differ between
different authors in the literature, e.g., Bing (2004) focuses not in a view of construction
but in the way the forces interactions occur inside the structure. Equation Section (Next)
10
1.2 ENGINEERING APPLICATIONS

Termonia (1994) and Simmons, Michal and Jelinski (1996) analyzed the spider
silk using magnetic resonance and X-Ray data, respectively. The silk is described as being
composed of a complex-folded protein primarily made of two amino acids, glycine and
alanine, one highly oriented and other poorly oriented, which can be modeled as a
microscale tensegrity model. The Nephila Clavipes, a spider usually known as the golden
orb weaver, produces nature’s strongest fiber. Hence the spider silk has very interesting
properties, since it is stronger than steel and its tensile strength is similar of Kevlar,
although having an extremely high elasticity. This uncommon feature of high strength
and stretch presents toughness values never obtained in synthetic (man-made) high-
performance fibers.
The erythrocyte (red blood cell) membrane is a lipid bilayer (membrane) that has
33 thousand units, forming a junction complex (protofilament), that resemble tensegrity
models attached to its under-side. The lipid bilayer has remarkable static and dynamic
comportment. The protofilament is rigid compared to the rest of the components, so it can
be modeled as rigid bar, while the spectrin are elastic and can be modeled as elastic
tendons. Vera et al. (2005) have developed a mesoscale tensegrity structure to model one
cell of 33 thousand cells of the junction complex. Through numerical simulations using
different initial conditions to study unhealthy behavior of the cells, the model presented
good agreement with experimental data. This model can represent the underlying
mechanisms in a variety of physiological and pathological occurrences in erythrocytes.
In addition, this study may serve to the purpose of establishing the base to understand and
predict nanomechanics at molecular level and lay down the base for the designing
artificial network structures in biomedical applications and material science. Cañadas et
al. (2002), Sultan et al. (2004), and other similar studies using tensegrity to model living
cells can also be found in the literature.
Eckberg and Pearson (2005) performed computer simulations to study the
physiology of cat’s hind legs. A tensegrity-like 3D structure was utilized as a model,
where controllers were employed to actuate two different signals: one force related to the
force ankle extensors; and one related to the angle at the hip joint. The two signals have

11
a fundamental importance in understanding the terminating stance of the hind legs: one
related to unloading the leg and the other to hip extension. Through a series of
simulations, the conclusion reached was that coordination of hind legs are highly
dependent on load-sensitive signals from each leg, also the linkages between legs, in
addition to the signals, play a very important role in establishing the alternating walk.
Scarr (2011) experimentally examines an elbow from a tensegrity perspective,
where the elbow is depicted as a uniaxial hinge rotation with pivot of proximal forearm
rotation. The motions of the elbow are guided by the joint surfaces, while the ligaments
serve the purpose of maintain structural integrity and the muscles drive the motion. The
model has a relevance to shed a light in common pathologies, such as “tennis elbow” and
“repetitive strain injure”, which remain as an open debate.
Sun et al. (2019) utilizes the tensegrity concept to model a robotic foot for the
purpose of adaptive locomotion on complex terrain, without control, with improved
deformability, impact resistance and adaptability to environmental solicitations. An
analytical model is developed to derive the behavior of the mechanism proposed and to
calibrate the stiffnesses. To simulate the foot locomotion, numerical simulations are
carried out using ADAMS. In addition, for last, an experimental prototype is constructed
to verify the features of the proposed terrain-adaptive locomotion mechanism. The
theoretical, numerical and experimental responses are compared to verify the
effectiveness of the propose mechanism. The results show that the developed foot can
mimic the human foot remarkably well, even in complex terrain, while being relatively
simple and lightweight. Thus, it is concluded that tensegrity structures offer new avenues
of research and several advantages over traditional rigid
systems.Equation Chapter (Next) Section 1

3. MATHEMATICAL MODELING

This chapter is devoted to the construction of the equilibrium equations for

tensegrity prisms. Even though this work is dedicated to the simplex tensegrity prism, the
mathematical modeling of the structure is made without any loss of generality. This
means that the mathematical modeling comprises not only the simplex
tensegrity ( p = 3 ), but any tensegrity prism for any number p of polygon sides.
12
 The equilibrium of a general tensegrity structure can be obtained as described in
Skelton and Oliveira (2009). The equilibrium can be established by considering that F
represents all the internal forces of the structure and W represents all the external applied
forces on the structure,

F −W = 0 (1)

For the simplex tensegrity structure (Figure 8), equations (2) and (3) together with
equation (1) represent the equilibrium of the whole structure.

Figure 8 – Simplex tensegrity structure.

13
  3r 0 3r 2 3r 0 3r 2 r r 3 4 
 2 + 2 − − − − − − 3 3 − r 3 5 + r 3 3 + r 3 5 + 
 2 2 2 − 2 
2
 3  1 3 r 8 1 3  3  
 − 1  r 6  −  r 7 −  −  r 7 + r 3 4  − 1  r 6 + 
  2  2 2  2 2 2  +  2  
2
  3 r 1 3  3 1  
 −  −1 −  r 0 − 1  +  r 2  −1 −  r 0 r 8 r 1  +
3
 r 2 
2 2   2  +
  2  2
2 2 2 2  
 
 
 1 r 3 2 3 3r 3 3r 4 3 r  
F =  r 3 − − r 3 0 − r 3 1 − 3r 1 + − − r 3 + + + − 4
− 
0 2 2 2 2 2 2
 2 
 r 3  3 1  3  3 1  3 r 6 
 2  −  r 7 − 1 −  r 8 −  −  r 7 − 1 −  r 8 + + 
 2  2 2  2   2 2  2  2
 (2)
 r 6 r 0  3  −1 3 r 0  3  1 3  
 + + 1 +  r 1  −  r 2 1 +  r 1 − −  r 2 
 2 2  2   2 2  2  2   2 2  
 
 
 −h0 6 − h0 0 −h0 7 − h0 1 −h0 8 − h0 2 h0 7 + h0 0 h0 8 + h0 1 h0 6 + h02 

The external forces matrix W can be written as follows:

14
 W0 x W1x W2 x W3 x W4 x W5 x 
W = W0 y W1 y W2 y W3 y W4 y W5 y  (3)
W0 z W1z W2 z W3 z W4 z W5 z 

4. CONCLUSION AND PROPOSAL

Equation Chapter (Next) Section 1 The objective of this research is the nonlinear
mechanics investigation of tensegrity structures, especially smart bioinspired structures
actuated by smart materials. Human foot is one example of such structures that can be
used as prothesis. Nonlinear dynamics is of special interest.
For this intent, the following tasks can be proposed and summarized
through Table 1.

Tasks:

1. Subject matters;
2. Literature review;
3. Numerical implementation;
4. Nonlinear analysis;
5. Text writing.

Table 1 – Tasks schedule.

2024
Taks 2021 2022 2023

1 X X
2 X X X
3 X X X
4 X X X
5 X X

The subject matters of interest are:

1. COM 747 - Mecânica Clássica;
2. COM 772 Elementos Finitos;
15
3. COM 728 Transf. de Calor Computacional
4. COM 760 Motores de Combustão Interna;
5. COM 745 Análise Dinâmica de Estruturas;
6. COM 823 Problemas Inversos.

16
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