Semester

Fall

Date of Graduation

2018

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Type

MS

College

Statler College of Engineering and Mineral Resources

Department

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

Committee Chair

Yu Gu

Committee Co-Chair

Jason Gross

Committee Member

Jason Gross

Committee Member

Powsiri Klinkhachorn

Abstract

One of the major challenges faced when developing missions for the exploration of planetary bodies is the risk these terrains pose on the science platform when using a traditional lander or wheeled rover. One means of developing platforms to traverse these harsh terrains is to utilize mobility systems comprised of tensegrity structures. These structures have the capacity to distribute loads across a network of axially loaded members such that they can be constructed in a very lightweight manner and morph their geometries when required. In literature, there has been significant progress in simulated environments to utilize tensegrity structures as mobility platforms, but the leap to real hardware has been a slow transition due to constrains in actuation design and state estimation. This thesis outlines a method of aiding an Inertial Navigation System deployed on a single strut of a tensegrity structure using zero velocity updates. The methods are implemented on a static icosahedran tensegrity structure to test the viability of the ZUPT-aided INS, how it can be improved, and other instrumentation configurations that can improve the results in future works.

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