Vol. 2, No. 5, 2007
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ISSN: 1559-3959

A marching procedure for form-finding for tensegrity structures

Andrea Micheletti and William O. Williams
Vol. 2 (2007), No. 5, 857–882
DOI: 10.2140/jomms.2007.2.857
Abstract

We give an algorithm for solving the form-finding problem, that is, for finding stable placements of a given tensegrity structure. The method starts with a known stable placement and alters edge lengths in a way that preserves the equilibrium equations. We then characterize the manifold to which classical tensegrity systems belong, which gives insight into the form-finding process. After describing several special cases, we show the results of a successful test of our algorithm on a large system.
Keywords

tensegrity structures, stability analysis, rank-deficiency manifold, marching processes, limit placements
Milestones

Received: 9 May 2006
Accepted: 9 October 2006
Authors
Andrea Micheletti
Dipartimento di Ingegneria Civile
Università di Roma Tor Vergata
Via Politecnico 1
00133 Rome
Italy
William O. Williams
William O. Williams
Department of Mathematical Sciences
Carnegie Mellon University
Pittsburgh, PA 15213-3890
United States
http://www.math.cmu.edu/~wow/williams