Design of a Fully Pulley-Guided Wire-Driven Prismatic Tensegrity Robot: Friction Impact to Robot Payload Capacity

The tensegrity structure was initially created as a static structure, but it has gained significant attention among robotics researchers due to its benefits, including high payload capability, shock resistance, and resiliency. However, implement- ing tensegrity structures in robotics presents new technical challenges, primarily related to their wire-driven structure, such as wire-routing and wire-friction problems. Therefore, this research letter proposes a technical solution for the afore- mentioned problems. The main contribution of this research is the design of frictionless pulley-guided nodes. To validate the proposed concept, we conducted comparative experiments between a common tensegrity prototype and a pulley-guided prototype, evaluating wire tension distribution and payload capacity.