Session: Rising Stars of Mechanical Engineering Celebration & Showcase

Paper Number: 147927

147927 - Career: Static, Dynamic and Kinematic Analysis and Optimization of Tensegrity Structures Through Cellular Morphogenesis 

This Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) award supports research that will focus on the generation, analysis and optimization of tensegrity structures. Tensegrity represents a class of structures composed of members in compression and tension in a self-equilibrated state. In this project, tensegrity systems are studied to conceive rapidly erected structures for traditional civil applications. However, the outcomes of this award extend beyond architecture and structures as tensegrity systems have been explored for a wide variety of engineering applications including metamaterials, planetary landers, soft robotics, as well as to model the mechanical behavior of biological cells. Although tensegrity structures have received significant interest among scientists and engineers, there is still no unifying theory on their generation and behavior. This research project thus seeks to develop a morphological framework that integrates design criteria with assembly and kinematics while providing architectural design freedom. The framework enables control over the behavior of tensegrity structures by decomposing complex systems into elementary tensegrity units. Inspired by tensegrity?s artistic origin, the research will also be complemented by developing learning modules centered on objects at the intersection of art, science, and engineering, exploring object-based learning in collaboration with educational experts and students.

The goal of the research project is to develop a theoretical understanding of how morphology can be used to define the stability, equilibrium, deployability, structural response, sensing, and control in complex tensegrity structures. Specifically, the research approach includes a) understanding the relationship between cellular composition and mechanical behavior in tensegrity structures, b) enhancing the construction, analysis, sensing and control of tensegrity structures, and c) deriving a morphological framework for the generation and optimization of tensegrity structures with predefined and transformable forms, as well as tunable mechanical behaviors. To accomplish these objectives, a method that links topology identification and form finding through the cellular composition of tensegrity systems with cells being elementary tensegrity units will be explored. It is hypothesized that tuning the cellular composition of tensegrity structures along with their structural parameters can lead to desired shapes, optimized mechanical performance, and advantageous control methods. This project will allow the PI to advance the knowledge base in tensegrity systems and establish his long-term career in structural morphology.

Presenting Author: Landolf Rhode-Barbarigos University of Miami

Presenting Author Biography: Landolf Rhode-Barbarigos received his PhD in 2012 from Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland. From 2012 to 2014, he joined Princeton University as Postdoctoral Researcher in the Form-Finding Lab. Since January 2015, he has been a Professor at the Department of Civil & Architectural Engineering at the University of Miami. His research explores structural morphology and morphogenesis as umbrella concepts. He employs these concepts to identify solutions and design more sustainable and resilient structures through the study of structural and architectural systems, such as tensegrity and hexagonal lattice structures, with applications varying from infrastructure systems and space structures to marine and coastal protection. His work on green/gray protective structures is of great relevance for South Florida and coastal communities around the world. Therefore, the pilot installations that he has been co-designing with local communities have attracted a lot of media attention. His research has been funded by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine through the National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP), the National Science Foundation (NSF), the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). He is also the recipient of an NSF Faculty Early Career Development Program (CAREER) award. He currently serves on two American Society of Civil Engineering (ASCE) committees, the Aerospace Space Engineering & Construction Committee and the Esthetics in Design Committee, as he enjoys expanding engineering boundaries and supporting artistic and educational initiatives that integrate engineering and the arts.

Authors:

Landolf Rhode-Barbarigos University of Miami