Development and scaling of a motor-actuated tensegrity robot based on NASA’s Super Ball Bot concept.
1. Overview
At NASA Ames, I developed a lightweight, motor-actuated tensegrity robot for robust locomotion and impact survivability. The design used an unconventional icosahedral network of semi-flexible carbon-fiber rods, braided nylon tension members, PETG end caps, and servo-driven cable contraction. Coordinated MG90D servos, controlled through a Pololu Maestro controller, allowed the structure to reconfigure and move from one stable face to the next, enabling controlled omnidirectional motion without a heavy rigid chassis.
2. Approach
I scaled the platform from a 40 cm prototype to a roughly 1.5 m system while preserving its basic walking dynamics. The main design challenge was maintaining tension distribution and structural stiffness as the robot grew, while keeping the platform light enough to remain compliant and recover from impacts.
3. Results
Smaller prototypes survived repeated drops from more than 30 feet and demonstrated omnidirectional movement over uneven terrain. The scale-up showed that a simple, lightweight tensegrity structure can combine impact resilience, directional control, and scalability, while also exposing tradeoffs in stiffness, durability, and actuator loading. This work contributed to the Scaling Soft Tensegrity Robots for Robust Locomotion paper and informed future work on autonomous control and planetary testing.
Skills & Tools
Research Paper
Scaling Soft Tensegrity Robots for Robust Locomotion