Kinematics for General Multibody Systems

Abstract

In this chapter, great emphasis is given to automatic generation of the matrices and arrays needed to express the kinematics of a general treelike multibody system. The coefficients that we develop will be in an explicit form ready for computer implementation. In the sequel, we introduce an array that contains the topological information about the structure interconnection and make use of the previously defined kinematics of rigid bodies and extend its definition to general open-structure problems. A more structured formulation for the partial angular velocity and partial velocity arrays and their derivatives is presented. At the end of the chapter the student and engineer are expected to be able to formulate the kinematics of any open mechanical system or chain following the procedures presented herein.