MODELING THE DYNAMICS OF COMPLEX MULTIBOD Y SYSTEMS WITH KINEMATICAL TRANSMISSION ELEMENTS

A principal issue in the modeling of the dynamics of complex multibody systems, i.e. mechanical systems consisting of many bodies with a com plex interconnection structure, is the statement and resolution of the constraint equations. A possible approach to tackle this problem is t o treat the individual independent loops in the mechanism as nonlinear transmission elements, denominated ,,kinematical transformers'', whic h are assembled together by linear equations to ,,kinematical networks '' representing general mechanisms. This block-diagram representation of the overall kinematics allows to find easily an appropriate solutio n flow and also recursive solutions. In the present paper, the details of the corresponding systematics as well as the achievable efficiency are discussed.