Stiffness Analysis of a 2-DoF Planar Tensegrity Mechanism

This paper presents a general method to perform the stiffness analysis of tensegrity mechanisms. The method is based on an existing stiffness matrix model. Several stiffness indices having physical meaning are introduced. As an example, the method is applied to a planar 2-DoF tensegrity mechanism. Stiffness mappings based on the stiffness indices are generated for the mechanism’s workspace. It is shown for the example mechanism that the effect of the prestress on the stiffness is not significant when linear stiffness models of the components are assumed.