Description

During this research a Smart Adaptable Module (S.A.M) was developed; a modular structural system that is flexible in all possible directions.

The system was built up of elements in compression and elements in tension, where the latter were acting as actuators. By changing the length of the elements in tension, the structure could change its shape and alter its internal forces. The system was not only inspired by tensegrity, but also by the biological skeleton of bones and muscles. Bones that can take compression and bending, muscles and their antagonists make the structure move and take the changing loads.

Festo pneumatic muscles were tested for application in the structural system and different adaptive strategies have been modelled in the gaming engine Virtools.