Two Master of Engineering Capstone teams, led by Professor Alice M. Agogino, are currently working on a tensegrity robot that has the potential of becoming NASA’s Next Space Robot.
Tensegrity is a portmanteau of “tension” and “integrity” elaborating on “a structure of compressed components that generates a net of continuous tension, according to NASA.” An ingenious application of this concept might be the future for space exploration. Space vehicles employing tensegrity would be able to operate in the ultra low-gravity of asteroids and comets.