Versatile Reconfiguration Approach Applied to Articulated Linkage Structures
Publication: Journal of Architectural Engineering
Volume 27, Issue 4
Abstract
Advances in materials, design, and control, as well as increasing concerns about the sustainability of the built environment, have provided a background for the development of deployable tensegrity and scissor-like systems, which are often limited between a closed and an open state. In cases where more versatile reconfigurations are aimed at, the systems rely on embedded computation and mechanical actuators. Such mechanisms often lead to energy-inefficient operation and complex kinematic behavior. Toward providing multiple possible target configurations of the structure, as well as flexibility and controllability, the effective crank–slider and effective 4-bar methods have been proposed and applied to planar multibar linkage systems. The underlying kinematics principle refers to the reduction of a multi-DOF system to an externally actuated 1-DOF system in each reconfiguration step of the control sequence while adjusting the system joints from an initial to a target position. The present paper reviews related aspects with regard to the two basic reconfiguration approaches and exemplifies their combined implementation through a case study concerning a closed-chain linkage system with eight bars.
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Acknowledgments
This work was supported by the University of Cyprus (Project No. UCY-ARCH0102-2020).
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Published In
Journal of Architectural Engineering
Volume 27 • Issue 4 • December 2021
Copyright
© 2021 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Apr 20, 2021
Accepted: Aug 23, 2021
Published online: Sep 14, 2021
Published in print: Dec 1, 2021
Discussion open until: Feb 14, 2022
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Cited by
- Marios C. Phocas, Eftychios G. Christoforou, Maria Matheou, Niki Georgiou, Kinematics Approach and Experimental Verification of a Class of Deployable and Reconfigurable Linkage Structures, Journal of Structural Engineering, 10.1061/JSENDH.STENG-12624, 150, 1, (2024).
- Maria Matheou, Marios C. Phocas, Eftychios G. Christoforou, Andreas Müller, New perspectives in architecture through transformable structures: A simulation study, Frontiers in Built Environment, 10.3389/fbuil.2023.1051337, 9, (2023).