Large-scale framed structure as parallel mechanism with hyper-redundancy

The truss, a typical framed structure, is a fixed/dead structural system. A variable system is derived from the truss by installing a kinematic pair in each of the truss members. The system obtained is not a structure but a mechanism in the conventional sense. This is the truss-type mechanism, and it is hyper-redundant and quite flexible due to the highly multiple degrees of freedom when derived from the large scaled truss. The truss-type mechanism is used as a deployable structure and an adaptive structure. This article reviews the story of the evolution from the truss as a fixed structure to the adaptive truss structure. This system has a broad potential to create versatile flexibility in the structural system in general, although current applications are concentrated on space structure engineering.