Entrant Profile

Robert Laxton Burdon

Location: Honolulu, Hawaii United States


Company: Hexaflex Concepts LLC


Profession: Inventor


Inspired by: My inspiration for this idea was a serendipitous discovery: The faculty of making fortunate and unexpected discoveries by accident.
Way back in 1990 I was playing with my 5 year old daughter who was now, just tall enough to reach for a very fragile prototype of a pin-jointed toy framework of conjoined rhombic dodecahedrons which I thought was out of reach. I controlled my paranoia! It had already been rejected by the toy industry. So what if it is likely to break?! Let’s play.
So, we began to have fun with it. While we were playing, it fell off the table. We had both tried to catch it, and in so doing, the framework got bent out of shape and hit the floor. As I looked within the wreckage of the toy, I saw an unexpected structure of two opposed tripods. That had never happened in 5 years! Eureka! I was seeing a new formation which had all the looks of a partial tensegrity truss.
It was later confirmed as a new partial tensegrity truss discovery by Professor Hoshyar Nooshin BSc, DIC, PhD, CEng, FIStructE, Emeritus Professor of Space Structures. University of Surrey. U.K.

2021 Entries

Date Title Category Views Votes
07/01 Dynamic Spaceframe Aerospace & Defense 1931 12