Tensegrity Robots Heads: Shinichi Hirai Contact: Mizuho Shibata Date: 2008 - 2016 Mailing address: Dept. Robotics, Ritsumeikan Univ. Kusatsu, Shiga 525-8577, Japan Supported by: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research (No.25630098) 2013 - 2014 (Shinichi Hirai) Dynamics in Tensegrity Structure Locomotion Young Scientists B (No.21760210) 2009 - 2011 (Shibata, Mizuho) Locomotion Mechanism Driven by the Body Deformation Associated lab/group:

Project Description

In this research, we will investigate a robot that moves over terrain via the deformation of tensegrity structure. The body consists of rigid elements connected by tensional members. Deformation of tensegrity structure yields the locomotion over terrain.

2015/6/9	visit to SIA (news)
2014/7/11	Presented "Locomotion of Tensegrity Robots" at Sustainable Flexible Automation Technical Committee of Institute of Systems, Control and Information Engineers
2013/4/1	Proposal for Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research "Dynamics in Rolling and Jumping of Tensegrity Structures" was accepted.
2012/3/26	Tensegrity robots were intoduced ini a TV program Morning Bird!.
2011/1/24	Tensegrity robots appear in a magazine "Aera". (RS Web)
2010/9/21	Hirai Lab. was introduced in a TV program Love ☆ Lab. (News 610, NHK Kyoto).
2010/8/28	Open Campus

Rolling of tensegrity robot

Personnel

	Name	Title	Degree
	Fumiya Kawai	Graduated	Master of Eng.
	Yuuki Aboshi	Graduated	Master of Eng.
	Ryo Imuta	Graduated	Master of Eng.
	Yuusuke Koizumi	Graduated	Master of Eng.
	Kazuma Terashi	Graduated	Master of Eng.
	Toma Suzuki	Graduated
	Yasunari Tabuchi	Graduated
	Shinya Kitamura	Graduated
	Touma Taniguchi	Graduated
	Yuuta Kyotou	Graduated
	Mitsuo Nakase	Graduated
	Fumio Saijyo	Graduated

Publications

• Wenjuan Du, Shugen Ma, Bin Li, Minghui Wang, and Shinichi Hirai, Force Analytic Method for Rolling Gaits of Tensegrity Robots, IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics, Vol.21, Issue 5, pp.2249-2259, 10.1109/TMECH.2016.2519559, Oct., 2016

• Wenjuan Du, Shugen Ma, Bin Li, Minghui Wang, and Shinichi Hirai, Dynamic Simulation for 6-strut Tensegrity Robots, 2014 IEEE International Conference on Information and Automation (ICIA), pp.870-875, 10.1109/ICInfA.2014.6932774, Hulunbeir Hotel, Hailar, China, July 26-31, 2014
• Shinichi Hirai and Ryo Imuta, Dynamic Modeling of Tensegrity Robots Rolling over the Ground, The 5th International Conference on Computational Methods (ICCM2014), Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge, England, July 28-30, 2014
• Shinichi Hirai, Yuusuke Koizumi, and Mizuho Shibata, Active Shaping of a Tensegrity Robot via Pre-pressure, 2013 IEEE/ASME Int. Conf. on Advanced Intelligent Mechatronics (AIM 2013), pp.19-25, 10.1109/AIM.2013.6584062, Wollongong, Australia, July 9-12, 2013
• Yuusuke Koizumi, Mizuho Shibata, and Shinichi Hirai, Rolling Tensegrity Driven by Pneumatic Soft Actuators, Proc. IEEE Int. Conf. on Robotics and Automation, pp.1988-1993, 10.1109/ICRA.2012.6224834, St. Paul, U.S.A., May 14-18, 2012
• Shinichi Hirai and Ryo Imuta, Dynamic Simulation of Six-strut Tensegrity Robot Rolling, 2012 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Biomimetics (ROBIO 2012), pp.198-204, 10.1109/ROBIO.2012.6490966, Guangzhou, China, Dec. 11-14, 2012
• Mizuho Shibata and Shinichi Hirai, Moving strategy of tensegrity robots with semiregular polyhedral body, Proc. 13th Int. Conf. Climbing and Walking Robots and the Support Technologies for Mobile Machines (CLAWAR 2010), Nagoya, Japan, Aug. 31 - Sept. 3, 2010
• Mizuho Shibata, Fumio Saijyo, and Shinichi Hirai, Crawling by Body Deformation of Tensegrity Structure Robots, Proc. IEEE Int. Conf. on Robotics and Automation, pp.4375-4380, 10.1109/ROBOT.2009.5152752, Kobe, Japan, May 12-17, 2009
• Mizuho Shibata and Shinichi Hirai, Rolling Locomotion of Deformable Tensegrity Structure, Proc. 12th Int. Conf. Climbing and Walking Robots and the Support Technologies for Mobile Machines (CLAWAR 2009), Istanbul, Turkey, Sept. 9-11, 2009

Notes

Album	Rolling of 6-strut robot (mpg 4.2MB)	Rolling of 6-strut robot (mp4 16.6MB)	Rolling of 6-strut robot (mp4 17.5MB)	Rolling by strut driving (P to P) (mpg 4.2MB)
Rolling by strut driving (P to A) (mpg 5.4MB)	Rolling by strut driving (A to P) (mpg 6.6MB)	6-strut robot prototype

Related Sites

• my bits and pieces
• Kenneth Snelson
• TENSEGRITY by R. Buckminster Fuller