Deployable tensegrity towers

The design of a complete tensegrity system involves the analysis of static equilibria, the mechanical properties of the configuration, the deployment of the structure, and the regulation and dynamics of the system. This dissertation will explore these steps for two different types of structures. The first structure is the traditional Snelson Tower, where struts are disjointed, and is referred to as a Class 1 tensegrity. The second structure of interest is referred to as a Class 2 structure, where two struts come in contact at a joint.; The first part of the thesis involves the dynamics of these tensegrity structures. Two complete nonlinear formulations for the dynamics of tensegrity systems are derived. In addition, a general formulation for the statics for an arbitrary tensegrity structure resulted from one of the dynamic formulations and is presented with symmetric and nonsymmetric tensegrity configurations.; The second part of the thesis involves statics. The analysis of static equilibria and the implementation of this analysis into an open loop control law that will deploy the tensegrity structures along an equilibrium manifold are derived. The analysis of small stable tensegrity units allow for a modular design, where a collection of these units can be assembled into a larger structure that obeys the same control laws for deployment concepts. In addition, a loaded structure is analyzed to determine the optimal number of units required to obtain a minimal mass configuration.; The third part of the thesis involves laboratory hardware that demonstrates the practical use of the methodology presented. A Class 2 symmetric structure is constructed, deployed, and stowed using the analysis from part two. In addition, the static equilibria of a Class 1 structure is computed to obtain nonsymmetric reconfigurations.; The final part of the thesis involves the attenuation of white noise disturbances acting on nodes of both structures. The structures are simulated using linear quadratic gausian regulators (LQG) and a practical actuator selection scheme is proposed for the structures.