  The present paper is concerned with the formulation of new assembly methods
of bi-material tensegrity prisms, and the experimental characterization of the
compressive response of such structures. The presented assembly techniques are
easy to implement, including a string-first approach in the case of ordinary
tensegrity prisms, and a base-first approach in the case of systems equipped
with rigid bases. The experimental section shows that the compressive response
of tensegrity prisms switches from stiffening to softening under large
displacements, in dependence on the current values of suitable geometric and
prestress variables. Future research lines regarding the mechanical modeling of
tensegrity prisms and their use as building blocks of nonlinear periodic
lattices and acoustic metamaterials are discussed.
