Mechanism design and motion analysis of a novel piping tensegrity robot

Pipeline robots are used to clean and test pipelines, which require the robot to be lightweight and easy to control. In this paper, we design a pipeline robot composed of three D-bar tensegrity units and analyze its crawling gait. The geometric information of all components can be described according to the node coordinates and the connection matrix. Once the material information of all components is given, the static analysis of the initial state of the pipeline robot can be carried out. Coupled with the friction theory, the nonlinear dynamic model of the tensegrity structure is established by the Lagrangian method. The dynamic response for a tensegrity pipeline robot in a pipe with an inner diameter of 200 mm is analyzed. The results show the following: (1) The shorter the motion cycle time, the greater the active friction required for motion, and the more energy required to overcome damping. (2) To ensure that the pipeline robot doesn’t slip when the support unit is working, it is necessary to control the reasonable movement step size or increase the time of a single movement cycle. This work contributes a new design paradigm for pipeline robots by integrating tensegrity principles with dynamic gait analysis, providing both theoretical insights and practical guidelines for improving locomotion stability in confined environments.