A Form-finding of Planar Tensegrity Structures

Abstract

A form-finding procedure is presented for planar tensegrity structures. Notably, a simple decision criteria is proposed to pick the desirable candidate position vector from the unitary matrix produced by the eigenvalue decomposition of force density matrix. The soundness of the candidate position vector guarantees faster convergence and produces a desirable form of tensegrity without any member having zero-length. Several numerical examples are provided to demonstrate the capability of the proposed form-finding process.