Design of Tensegrity-based Humanoid Robot

초록

This paper presents the design and development of a tensegrity-based humanoid robot, in which each body segment is modularized according to the tensegrity principle and integrated into a unified system. The proposed platform is constructed as Class-1 and Class-2 tensegrity structures, eliminating rigid-body contact at the joints and enabling fully compliant articulation. Tensegrity architectures provide two primary advantages. First, their elastic components inherently confer compliance to external disturbances, enhancing safety in human-robot collaboration by mitigating unexpected impacts. Second, they enable substantial weight reduction by minimizing conventional rigid mechanical elements, thereby decreasing structural load and improving energy efficiency. The actuation strategy integrates tendon-driven and motor-driven mechanisms to achieve both mechanical flexibility and precise control. The resulting system features 38-DoF, including 10-DoF in the arms, 6-DoF in the legs, and 6-DoF in the spine. This work demonstrates the feasibility of realizing a lightweight, compliant, and fully articulated humanoid platform based on tensegrity mechanisms.