Stability conditions for tensegrity structures

Stability conditions for tensegrity structures are derived based on positive definiteness of the tangent stiffness matrix, which is the sum of the linear and geometrical stiffness matrices. A necessary stability condition is presented by considering the affine motions that lie in the null-space of the geometrical stiffness matrix. The condition is demonstrated to be equivalent to that derived from the mathematical rigidity theory so as to resolve the discrepancy between the stability theories in the fields of engineering and mathematics. Furthermore, it is shown that the structure is guaranteed to be stable, if the structure satisfies the necessary stability condition and the geometrical stiffness matrix is positive semidefinite with the minimum rank deficiency for non-degeneracy.