Optimal Control Of Tri-prism Tensegrity Based On Linear Programming

Tensegrity structure based on the characteristics of continuous tension and isolated pressure reflects the objective laws of nature. It has attracted more and more attention from structural engineers. Actuators and sensors are introduced into the structure to construct a kind of intelligent tensegrity structures, making tensegrity structure like a man with "life", which can actively respond to the external environment. Through the actuators, the length of the bar is changed to increase the stiffness of the structure and minimize the stress of the structure. In some ways, this might be more meaningful than increasing dosage of materials.In this paper, actuators are introduced into the structure. The strength optimization is established for minimizing the working state coefficient subjecting to working parameters of actuator and the limited nodal displacement. By solving this model, the adjustment of the actuators can be obtained and the shape of the structure can be adjusted, so that the state of the structure under the action of the load can be optimized. The strength optimization control of the tri-prism tensegrity unit with different conditions, different control parameters, different number and arrangement of actuators, is analyzed.In this paper, the displacement optimization model based on linear programming is proposed. The model aims to minimize the maximal nodal displacement subjected to working state coefficient and the property of the actuators. The displacement optimization control of the tri-prism tensegrity unit with different conditions, different control parameters, different number and arrangement of actuators is analyzed. Analysis shows that the control effect is better when both diagonal cables and top cables are equipped with actuators compared to either diagonal cables or top cables are equipped with actuators. It also shows that the case using struts as active members has a better control effect than the cases using either diagonal cables or top cables as active members.This paper studies the multi-objective static control of the tensegrity structure and a multi-objective control model based on linear programming is proposed. The characteristics of multi-objective control of the tensegrity structure are investigated by examples. Through analysis, it is found that when a single target is considered, the control index is optimal while other indexes are bad, which is sometimes unreasonable in engineering practice. By controlling the multi-objective optimization model, although each index is not optimal compared to single target optimization model, but it does has the most balanced and satisfying effect overall.Finally, an experimental study is carried out using a physical tensegrity model with active elements. Displacement optimal control of the test model is analyzed and conducted. In the experiment, the actuators are used to adjust the length of the components in order to observe the control effect of the shape of the structure. The experimental results show that the shape control target of the structure can be achieved by adjusting the length of the components. The experimental results are consistent with the numerical results based on the proposed method, which verifies the validity of the proposed method.