EQUATIONS OF MOTION FOR MECHANICAL SYSTEMS - A UNIFIED APPROACH

This paper presents a unified framework from which emerge the Lagrange equations, the Gibbs-Appell Equations and the Generalized Inverse Equ ations for describing the motion of constrained mechanical systems. Th e unified approach extends the applicability of the first two approach es to systems where the constraints are non-linear functions of the ge neralized velocities and are not necessarily independent. Furthermore, the approach leads to the Explicit Gibbs-Appell Equations. Copyright (C) 1996 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd.