Visualization of a sim. Note that it form finds (comes to equilibirum) halfway through the fall, and then collides with the ground accordingly. Black are rigid members solely in compression, blue are cable/elastomer members purely in tension.

The accompanying energy plot that corresponds to the previous slide's simulation. Note that the total energy decreases over time due to hystersis, then drops significantly after colliding with the ground.

A wide sweep of landing velocity direction and landing attitude through the final conceptual design struture (following section on this page). This provides peaks of at which orientations the structure is most efficient.

A bit of background on the hopcopter - a lightweight multimodal hopping robot that provides thrust through classic quadcopter drone rotors

Basic control scheme of the classic Hopcopter. The aimed area of optimization was between 2 and 3.

One of the many, many errors and bugs that came from this simulation. This specific one was due to incorrect energy tracking, not properly accounting for ground collision energy loss (ground being modelled as a 'stiff spring' means it retains energy). Solved through ignoring ground 'energy'.

Final conceptual design simulation in a specific landing orientation, where both hopping and slight rolling ability is shown. Efficiency map shown in previous section.

Breakdown of final desing. Outer rim is composed of stiff kevlar fibres, while central payload axis is attached through compliant elastomers to still facilitate hopping, while also allowing rolling.

Physical construction of the tensegrity geometry proved difficult, requiring a specialized, single use, assembly fixture (PLA printed) to allow proper geometry alignment.

Consideration 1 - Stroke Length: Defines the maximum allowable travel distance for the central payload axle before it physically collides with the outer rim struts. This parameter is directly tied to the total strut count, which influences determines the shape and volume of the internal cavity.

Consideration 2 - Radial Rigidity: Represents the wheel's ability to resist collapsing inward from lateral impacts. By increasing the face-to-face twist angle of the prism, the stiff struts align diagonally to intercept incoming radial forces, effectively converting bending loads into highly resistant pure axial compression, rather than just collapsing.

Consideration 3 - Cross-Shear Tendons: Solves the structural vulnerability of standard tensegrity prisms, which can easily twist and collapse under shear forces due to open, un-triangulated side facets. Adding a fourth diagonal Kevlar tendon across each panel fully triangulates the network, locking out this twisting mechanism and converting shear forces into pure axial tension.