Editing Tensegrity (section)

== Applications ==

=== Architecture ===
Tensegrities saw increased application in architecture beginning in the 1960s, when [[Maciej Gintowt]] and [[Maciej Krasiński]] designed [[Spodek]] arena complex (in [[Katowice]], [[Poland]]), as one of the first major structures to employ the principle of tensegrity. The roof uses an inclined surface held in check by a system of cables holding up its circumference. Tensegrity principles were also used in [[David Geiger]]'s Seoul [[Olympic Gymnastics Arena]] (for the [[1988 Summer Olympics]]), and the [[Georgia Dome]] (for the [[1996 Summer Olympics]]). [[Tropicana Field]], home of the Tampa Bay Rays major league baseball team, also has a dome roof supported by a large tensegrity structure.

[[File:Brisbane (6868660143).jpg|thumb|left|Largest tensegrity bridge in the world, [[Kurilpa Bridge]] – [[Brisbane]]]]
On 4 October 2009, the [[Kurilpa Bridge, Brisbane|Kurilpa Bridge]] opened across the [[Brisbane River]] in [[Queensland, Australia]]. A multiple-mast, cable-stay structure based on the principles of tensegrity, it is currently the world's largest tensegrity bridge.

=== Robotics ===
[[File:NASA SUPERball Tensegrity Lander Prototype.jpg|thumb|right|[[NASA Ames|NASA]]'s [[NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts#2012 NIAC Project Selections|Super Ball Bot]] is an early prototype to land on another planet without an airbag, and then be mobile to explore. The tensegrity structure provides structural compliance absorbing landing impact forces and motion is applied by changing cable lengths, 2014.]]

Since the early 2000s, tensegrities have also attracted the interest of roboticists due to their potential to design lightweight and resilient robots. Numerous researches have investigated tensegrity rovers,<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Sabelhaus |first1=Andrew P. |last2=Bruce |first2=Jonathan |last3=Caluwaerts |first3=Ken |last4=Manovi |first4=Pavlo |last5=Firoozi |first5=Roya Fallah |last6=Dobi |first6=Sarah |last7=Agogino |first7=Alice M. |last8=SunSpiral |first8=Vytas |title=2015 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) |chapter=System design and locomotion of SUPERball, an untethered tensegrity robot |date=May 2015 |chapter-url=https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/7139590 |location=Seattle, WA, USA |publisher=IEEE |pages=2867–2873 |doi=10.1109/ICRA.2015.7139590 |isbn=978-1-4799-6923-4|hdl=2060/20160001750 |s2cid=8548412 |hdl-access=free }}</ref> bio-mimicking robots,<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Lessard |first1=Steven |last2=Castro |first2=Dennis |last3=Asper |first3=William |last4=Chopra |first4=Shaurya Deep |last5=Baltaxe-Admony |first5=Leya Breanna |last6=Teodorescu |first6=Mircea |last7=SunSpiral |first7=Vytas |last8=Agogino |first8=Adrian |title=2016 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) |chapter=A bio-inspired tensegrity manipulator with multi-DOF, structurally compliant joints |date=October 2016 |chapter-url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/iros.2016.7759811 |pages=5515–5520 |publisher=IEEE |doi=10.1109/iros.2016.7759811 |isbn=978-1-5090-3762-9|arxiv=1604.08667 |s2cid=4507700 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Zappetti |first1=Davide |last2=Arandes |first2=Roc |last3=Ajanic |first3=Enrico |last4=Floreano |first4=Dario |date=2020-06-05 |title=Variable-stiffness tensegrity spine |url=https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-665X/ab87e0 |journal=Smart Materials and Structures |volume=29 |issue=7 |page=075013 |doi=10.1088/1361-665x/ab87e0 |bibcode=2020SMaS...29g5013Z |s2cid=216237847 |issn=0964-1726}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Liu |first1=Yixiang |last2=Dai |first2=Xiaolin |last3=Wang |first3=Zhe |last4=Bi |first4=Qing |last5=Song |first5=Rui |last6=Zhao |first6=Jie |last7=Li |first7=Yibin |date=2022 |title=A Tensegrity-Based Inchworm-Like Robot for Crawling in Pipes With Varying Diameters |url=https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9873907 |journal=IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters |volume=7 |issue=4 |pages=11553–11560 |doi=10.1109/LRA.2022.3203585 |s2cid=252030788 |issn=2377-3766}}</ref> and modular soft robots.<ref>{{Citation |last1=Zappetti |first1=D. |last2=Mintchev |first2=S. |last3=Shintake |first3=J. |last4=Floreano |first4=D. |title=Bio-inspired Tensegrity Soft Modular Robots |date=2017 |work=Biomimetic and Biohybrid Systems |pages=497–508 |place=Cham |publisher=Springer International Publishing |doi=10.1007/978-3-319-63537-8_42 |arxiv=1703.10139 |isbn=978-3-319-63536-1 |s2cid=822747 }}</ref> The most famous tensegrity robot is the [[NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts#2012 NIAC Project Selections|Super Ball Bot]],<ref>{{Cite web |last1=Hall |first1=Loura |date=2015-04-02 |title=Super Ball Bot |url=http://www.nasa.gov/content/super-ball-bot |access-date=2020-06-18 |website=NASA}}</ref> a rover for space exploration using a [[Jessen's icosahedron|6-bar tensegrity structure]], currently under developments at [[NASA Ames]].

=== Anatomy ===
Biotensegrity, a term coined by Stephen Levin, is an extended theoretical application of tensegrity principles to biological structures.<ref>{{cite book |last=Levin |first=Stephen |chapter=16. Tensegrity, The New Biomechanics |editor-first=Michael |editor-last=Hutson |editor2-first=Adam |editor2-last=Ward |title=Oxford Textbook of Musculoskeletal Medicine |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=u5G1CgAAQBAJ&pg=PA150 |date=2015 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-967410-7 |pages=155–56, 158–60}}</ref> Biological structures such as [[muscle]]s, [[skeleton|bones]], [[fascia]], [[ligaments]] and [[tendons]], or rigid and elastic [[cell membrane]]s, are made strong by the unison of tensioned and compressed parts. The [[Human musculoskeletal system|musculoskeletal system]] consists of a continuous network of muscles and connective tissues,{{sfn|Souza|Fonseca|Gonçalves|Ocarino|2009}} while the bones provide discontinuous compressive support, whilst the nervous system maintains tension in vivo through electrical stimulus. Levin claims that the [[Vertebral column|human spine]], is also a tensegrity structure although there is no support for this theory from a structural perspective.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Levin|first=Stephen M.|date=2002-09-01|title=The tensegrity-truss as a model for spine mechanics: biotensegrity|journal=[[Journal of Mechanics in Medicine and Biology]]|volume=02|issue=3n04|pages=375–88 |doi=10.1142/S0219519402000472|issn=0219-5194}}</ref>

=== Biochemistry ===
[[Donald E. Ingber]] has developed a theory of tensegrity to describe numerous phenomena observed in [[molecular biology]].<ref name=Ingber>{{cite journal |last=Ingber |first=Donald E. |journal=Scientific American |date=January 1998 |volume=278 |issue=1 |pages=48–57 |pmid=11536845 |title=The Architecture of Life |url=http://web1.tch.harvard.edu/research/ingber/PDF/1998/SciAmer-Ingber.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050515040403/http://web1.tch.harvard.edu/research/ingber/PDF/1998/SciAmer-Ingber.pdf  |archive-date = 2005-05-15 |doi=10.1038/scientificamerican0198-48 |bibcode=1998SciAm.278a..48I }}</ref> For instance, the expressed shapes of cells, whether it be their reactions to applied pressure, interactions with substrates, etc., all can be mathematically modelled by representing the cell's [[cytoskeleton]] as a tensegrity. Furthermore, geometric patterns found throughout nature (the helix of [[DNA]], the geodesic dome of a [[volvox]], [[Buckminsterfullerene]], and more) may also be understood based on applying the principles of tensegrity to the spontaneous self-assembly of compounds, proteins,<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Edwards |first1=Scott A. |last2=Wagner |first2=Johannes |last3=Gräter |first3=Frauke |date=2012 |title=Dynamic Prestress in a Globular Protein |journal=PLOS Computational Biology |volume=8 |issue=5 |pages=e1002509 |pmid=22589712 |pmc=3349725 |doi=10.1371/journal.pcbi.1002509
|bibcode=2012PLSCB...8E2509E |doi-access=free }}</ref> and even organs. This view is supported by how the tension-compression interactions of tensegrity minimize material needed to maintain stability and achieve structural resiliency, although the comparison with inert materials within a biological framework has no widely accepted premise within physiological science.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Skelton |first1=Robert |title=Globally stable minimal mass compressive tensegrity structures |journal=Composite Structures |date=2016 |volume=141 |pages=346–54 |doi=10.1016/j.compstruct.2016.01.105 |url=http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0263822316300174}}</ref> Therefore, [[natural selection]] pressures would likely favor biological systems organized in a tensegrity manner.

As Ingber explains:
{{Blockquote
|text=The tension-bearing members in these structures{{snd}}whether Fuller's domes or Snelson's sculptures{{snd}}map out the shortest paths between adjacent members (and are therefore, by definition, arranged geodesically). Tensional forces naturally transmit themselves over the shortest distance between two points, so the members of a tensegrity structure are precisely positioned to best withstand stress. For this reason, tensegrity structures offer a maximum amount of strength.<ref name=Ingber/>}}

In embryology, [[Richard Gordon (theoretical biologist)|Richard Gordon]] proposed that [[embryonic differentiation waves]] are propagated by an 'organelle of differentiation'<ref>{{Cite journal|doi = 10.1186/s12976-016-0037-2|title = The organelle of differentiation in embryos: The cell state splitter|year = 2016|last1 = Gordon|first1 = Natalie K.|last2 = Gordon|first2 = Richard|journal = Theoretical Biology and Medical Modelling|volume = 13|page = 11|pmid = 26965444|pmc = 4785624 | doi-access=free }}</ref> where the [[cytoskeleton]] is assembled in a bistable tensegrity structure at the apical end of cells called the 'cell state splitter'.<ref name="Hierarchical Genome">{{Cite book | doi=10.1142/2755|title = The Hierarchical Genome and Differentiation Waves| volume=3|series = Series in Mathematical Biology and Medicine|year = 1999|last1 = Gordon|first1 = Richard| isbn=978-981-02-2268-0}}</ref>