Impact-resistant, autonomous robots inspired by tensegrity architecture

2025-01-25

AI Summary

Addressing the challenge of simultaneously achieving impact resilience and autonomous operation for robots in complex, unstructured outdoor environments, this work proposes a bio-inspired hybrid soft–hard robot based on tensegrity architecture—comprising rigid struts and elastic cables. The system integrates multimodal onboard sensing (IMU, strain gauges, monocular vision), closed-loop autonomous navigation, and adaptive gait planning. It achieves, for the first time in tensegrity robotics, structural integrity and continuous functionality after a 5.7-meter free fall; attains high-speed locomotion at 18 strides/minute; maintains stable climbing on 28° inclines; demonstrates robustness via cliff-roll recovery; and successfully executes autonomous navigation over unstructured, unpaved terrain. This work establishes a novel design paradigm for resilient robots operating under high-dynamic, strongly perturbed conditions.

Technology Category

• Intelligent Robots: Multimodal Perception & Sensor Fusion
• Planning, Routing, and Scheduling: Replanning and Plan Repair
• Humans and AI: Planning and Decision Support for Human-Machine Teams

Application Category

• Responsible Web: Machine-in-the-loop, human agency and autonomy
• Systems and Infrastructure for Web, Mobile and WoT: Energy management for devices in mobile Web and WoT environments
• Search and Retrieval-Augmented AI: Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) and multi-modal RAG

Abstract

Future robots will navigate perilous, remote environments with resilience and autonomy. Researchers have proposed building robots with compliant bodies to enhance robustness, but this approach often sacrifices the autonomous capabilities expected of rigid robots. Inspired by tensegrity architecture, we introduce a tensegrity robot -- a hybrid robot made from rigid struts and elastic tendons -- that demonstrates the advantages of compliance and the autonomy necessary for task performance. This robot boasts impact resistance and autonomy in a field environment and additional advances in the state of the art, including surviving harsh impacts from drops (at least 5.7 m), accurately reconstructing its shape and orientation using on-board sensors, achieving high locomotion speeds (18 bar lengths per minute), and climbing the steepest incline of any tensegrity robot (28 degrees). We characterize the robot's locomotion on unstructured terrain, showcase its autonomous capabilities in navigation tasks, and demonstrate its robustness by rolling it off a cliff.

Problem

• Soft Robotics
• Durability
• Autonomous Navigation

Innovation

• Tensegrity-inspired Robotics
• Resilient and Autonomous Operation
• High Robustness and Self-awareness