Introduction History Stability Rigidity Tensegrities Stress Energy Tensegrities

Tensegrities and Rigity

Matthew Thomas

March 12, 2008

Matthew Thomas Tensegrities and Rigity

Introduction History Stability Rigidity Tensegrities Stress Energy Tensegrities

Definitions for Tensegrities

Pairs of points designated:

cables - constrained not to get further apart
struts - constrained not to get closer together
For cables, think of string.

For struts, think of springs.

Some people also include bars, which have fixed length.

Matthew Thomas Tensegrities and Rigity

Introduction History Stability Rigidity Tensegrities Stress Energy Tensegrities

History
1948 - Ken Snelson

Figure: Forest Devil, 1975, stainless steel, 34.5 x 68 x 51 inches

Matthew Thomas Tensegrities and Rigity

Introduction History Stability Rigidity Tensegrities Stress Energy Tensegrities

Snelson

Figure: Needle Tower, 1968, aluminum & stainless steel, 60 x 20 x 20 feet

Matthew Thomas Tensegrities and Rigity

Introduction History Stability Rigidity Tensegrities Stress Energy Tensegrities

History

B. Fuller came up with the name for the tensegrity, named for
tensional integrity structures.

Russian K. Loganson may have had similar ideas predating Snelson.

Matthew Thomas Tensegrities and Rigity

Introduction History Stability Rigidity Tensegrities Stress Energy Tensegrities

Stability

Super Stability of a tensegrity means that all other tensegrities

with the same underlying graph either violate one of the distance
constraints or are congruent to the given tensegrity - these could
be in a different dimension.

Rigidity of a tensegrity means that any continuous motion of the

vertices which preserve the cable and strut conditions extends to
an isometry of the ambient space.

Matthew Thomas Tensegrities and Rigity

Introduction History Stability Rigidity Tensegrities Stress Energy Tensegrities

Rigid But Not Super Stable

All elements are bars.

Matthew Thomas Tensegrities and Rigity

Introduction History Stability Rigidity Tensegrities Stress Energy Tensegrities

More Definitions

Two configurations p and q are congruent if every distance

between vertices of p is the same for the corresponding
distance for corresponding vertices of q.
A tensegrity structure with configuration p is rigid if every
other configuration q sufficiently close to p satisfying the
cable, bar, and strut constraints is congruent to p.

Matthew Thomas Tensegrities and Rigity

Introduction History Stability Rigidity Tensegrities Stress Energy Tensegrities

Stable Structures

Blue = Cable
Red = Strut

Matthew Thomas Tensegrities and Rigity

Introduction History Stability Rigidity Tensegrities Stress Energy Tensegrities

Another Stable Structure

Matthew Thomas Tensegrities and Rigity

Introduction History Stability Rigidity Tensegrities Stress Energy Tensegrities

Types of Rigidity

We might define rigidity in one of the following two ways:

Infinitesimal rigidity defined in terms of infinitesimal
displacements, i.e. velocity vectors.
Static rigidity defined in terms of forces and loads on the
structure.
Infinitesimal rigidity can be thought of as elasticity, while static
rigidity can be thought of as dealing with forces. These turn out to
be the equivalent.

Matthew Thomas Tensegrities and Rigity

Introduction History Stability Rigidity Tensegrities Stress Energy Tensegrities

Infinitesimal Motions and Flexes

Let {i, j} denote the cable/bar/strut connecting pi and pj . An

infinitesimal flex, p’, of a tensegrity structure is a vector pi ′
assigned to each vertex pi of the tensegrity such that:
(pi − pj )(pi ′ − pj ′ ) ≤ 0 when {i, j} is a cable.
(pi − pj )(pi ′ − pj ′ ) = 0 when {i, j} is a bar.
(pi − pj )(pi ′ − pj ′ ) ≥ 0 when {i, j} is a strut.

Matthew Thomas Tensegrities and Rigity

Introduction History Stability Rigidity Tensegrities Stress Energy Tensegrities

An example

Matthew Thomas Tensegrities and Rigity

Introduction History Stability Rigidity Tensegrities Stress Energy Tensegrities

A Simple Tensegrity

Green = Strut
Blue = Cable

Matthew Thomas Tensegrities and Rigity

Introduction History Stability Rigidity Tensegrities Stress Energy Tensegrities

Types of Tensegrities

Bar frameworks - all bars

Spider Webs - all cables
Circle/Sphere Packing - all struts

Matthew Thomas Tensegrities and Rigity

Introduction History Stability Rigidity Tensegrities Stress Energy Tensegrities

Circle Packing
Red = Strut
Boundaries are pinned

Matthew Thomas Tensegrities and Rigity

Introduction History Stability Rigidity Tensegrities Stress Energy Tensegrities

Stresses

A stress is an assignmnet of real scalars to pairs, {i, j},

wi,j = wj,i . If {i, j} is not a member of the tensegrity (i.e. pi
and pj are not connected by a strut, cable, or bar) we may say
wi,j = 0.
A proper stress is one in which wi,j = wj,i ≥ 0 when {i, j} is a
cable and wi,j = wj,i ≤ 0 when {i, j} is a strut. There is no
condition for bars.

Matthew Thomas Tensegrities and Rigity

Introduction History Stability Rigidity Tensegrities Stress Energy Tensegrities

Equilibrium Stress

A stress on a tensegrity is an equilibrium stress if for each

non-pinned
X vertex (if non-pinned vertices are included),
wi,j (pj − pi ) = 0.
i
Note that wi,j is a stress, and everything else is a vector.

Matthew Thomas Tensegrities and Rigity

Introduction History Stability Rigidity Tensegrities Stress Energy Tensegrities

A Simple Example

Matthew Thomas Tensegrities and Rigity

Introduction History Stability Rigidity Tensegrities Stress Energy Tensegrities

Stress Example

We consider our simple tensegrity again.

Matthew Thomas Tensegrities and Rigity

Introduction History Stability Rigidity Tensegrities Stress Energy Tensegrities

Stress Example
To find the equilibrium stress (or self-stress), we first label out
vertices and set up our equation. We need to fix some stresses, so
we will choose 1 for the stress of each cable. (We could have left it
variable.)

Matthew Thomas Tensegrities and Rigity

Introduction History Stability Rigidity Tensegrities Stress Energy Tensegrities

Stress Example

We can
µ find
¶ the stress
µ w¶3,2 = w2,3
µ. Notice
¶ µ we should
¶ have
0 1 1 0
w1,3 + w2,3 + w4,3 = .
1 1 0 0
w1,3 = 1 and w4,3 = 1, so w2,3 = −1.

Matthew Thomas Tensegrities and Rigity

Introduction History Stability Rigidity Tensegrities Stress Energy Tensegrities

Other Examples

We may have modifications to this equation if we have pinned

vertices.

As an example, consider a spider web, where we might have

wi,j > 0 ∀ i, j.

Matthew Thomas Tensegrities and Rigity

Introduction History Stability Rigidity Tensegrities Stress Energy Tensegrities

Energy

If we begin with a stress for a graph G, we can define a

stress-energyX
for our configuration where q = (q1 , q2 , q3 , . . . , qn )
by Ew (q) = wi,j |qi − qj |2
i<j

Ew is a quadratic function, and if there are no pinned vertices, it is

a quadratic form, which can be thought of as Ew : Ek → E1 ,
where k is the number of non-variable (non-fixed) vertices.

Matthew Thomas Tensegrities and Rigity

Introduction History Stability Rigidity Tensegrities Stress Energy Tensegrities

Critical Points of Ew
Proposition
A configuration p is a critical point for Ew ⇔ p is in equilibrium
with respect to the stress w .

Sketch of Proof:
Let p be a critical point of Ew . Let p’ be an arbitrary direction,
with pi′ = 0 if pi is a fixed vertex.
X
Ew (p + tp ′ ) = wi,j (pi − pj + t(pi′ − pj′ ))2
i<j
X
= wi,j (pi − pj )2 +
i<j
X
2t i < jwi,j (pi − pj ) · (pi′ − pj′ ) +
X
t2 (pi′ − pj′ )2 wi,j
i<j
Matthew Thomas Tensegrities and Rigity
Introduction History Stability Rigidity Tensegrities Stress Energy Tensegrities

Proof Continued

dEw X
Now, at t = 0, =2 wi,j (pi − pj ) · (pi′ − pj′ ) = 0. Now let
dt
p ′X
be 0 except in one non-pinned coordinate.
2 wi,j (xi − xj ) = 0 for the x-coordinate. Doing this at all
j
unpinned vertices, we get the equilibrium condition. The
equilibrium condition implies the critical point because we have a
basis for all p’s.

Matthew Thomas Tensegrities and Rigity

Introduction History Stability Rigidity Tensegrities Stress Energy Tensegrities

Spider Webs

Theorem
Let G be a spiderweb graph (all cables). This means that all
non-pinned vertices are connected by a chain of cables to a pinned
vertex. If G (p) is in equilibrium stress with respect to a nonzero
proper equilibrium stress, then G (p) is globally rigid.

Matthew Thomas Tensegrities and Rigity

Introduction History Stability Rigidity Tensegrities Stress Energy Tensegrities

Stress Matrices

The symmetric matrix Ωij is definedas


0 ··· 0 ··· 0 ··· 0
 .. .. 
 . . 
 
 0 · · · 1 · · · −1 · · · 0 
 .. .. 
 
 . . 
 
 0 · · · −1 · · · 1 · · · 0 
 .. .. 
 
 . . 
0 ··· 0 ··· 0 ··· 0
Which has a 1 in the ii and jj slot, and -1 in the ij X
and ji slot.
The stress matrix associated with stress w is Ω = wi,j Ωij .
i<j

Matthew Thomas Tensegrities and Rigity

Introduction History Stability Rigidity Tensegrities Stress Energy Tensegrities

Example of Stress Matrix

Since the ij-th entry of Ω is −wi,j , the stress matrix for our simple
 
1 −1 1 −1
 −1 1 −1 1 
tensegrity is 
 1
 coming from
−1 1 −1 
−1 1 −1 1

Matthew Thomas Tensegrities and Rigity

Introduction History Stability Rigidity Tensegrities Stress Energy Tensegrities

Stresses

Notice that this matrix is positive semi-definite. This can be shown

to always be true. This gives us a sense of how to determine
rigidity in tensegrities.

Matthew Thomas Tensegrities and Rigity

Introduction History Stability Rigidity Tensegrities Stress Energy Tensegrities

Returning to Tensegrities

Computing coordinates with set stress:

http://www.math.cornell.edu/~mdt29/maple/
Computing coordinates with variable stress:
http://www.math.cornell.edu/~mdt29/varmaple/
Images of Tensegrities with symmetries of symmetric groups:
http://www.math.cornell.edu/~mdt29/

Matthew Thomas Tensegrities and Rigity