Chen, Muhao

Research Activities

Tensegrity Lab seeks to develop new analytical tools to merge structure and control design with material science to create new structures and material systems. The structural paradigm for this research is tensegrity systems, creating minimal mass systems that allow minimal control energy within the constraints of allowable computational and sensing/actuating resources. The lab builds physical demonstrations of this integrated system design philosophy with material science to create new material systems. Robots are designed to deploy from small stowed packages. Robots are designed to harvest rocks and regolith from asteroids or the moon. Tensegrity structures are designed for deployment in space. Tensegrity Robots are designed to build tensegrity structures in space autonomously. Wings are designed without hinged surfaces to controllable shapes. Antennas are designed for deployment in space within operational accuracies. Impact tensegrity structures are designed to protect payloads at the impact on the moon or Mars. These studies employ data-based as well as model-based control methods.

List of Projects

The minimal mass tensegrity solutions to compressive and tensile loads
Introduction: This study explores two fundamental problems in engineering mechanics: compression and tension. We introduce lightweight solutions based on the tensegrity paradigm for these challenges. The analysis focuses on two tensegrity configurations: the D-Bar and its counterpart, the D-Bar dual. We provide analytical formulas for minimizing mass under both loading conditions, taking into account bar failure due to yielding and buckling. The design process follows self-similar principles, examining how structure complexity and variations in geometry and material parameters affect mass and stiffness. The results demonstrate that the D-Bar configuration offers significant mass savings compared to a single bar, while the D-Bar dual achieves considerably enhanced stiffness with only a slight increase in mass relative to a single string. These foundational structural configurations pave the way for designing more complex structures and developing high-performance, lightweight materials in engineering.
People on this project: Youyun Xu and Muhao Chen

Computational Methods

self-developed code
currently available in UKY

List of Software

Software: anaconda, ansys, ansys structure, ansys fluids, boost, cuda, fenics, impi, intel compiler, make, matlab, matplotlib, numpy, openmpi, python, scipy

Students

Youyun Xu