A GENERAL-METHOD FOR ESTIMATING DYNAMIC PARAMETERS OF SPATIAL MECHANISMS

Dynamic equations of motion require a large number of parameters for e ach element of the system. These can include for each part their mass, location of center of mass, moment of inertia, spring stiffnesses and damping coefficients. This paper presents a technique for estimating these parameters in spatial mechanisms using any joint type, based on measurements of displacements, velocities and accelerations and of ext ernal forces and torques, for the purpose of building accurate multibo dy models of mechanical systems. A form of the equations of spatial mo tion is derived, which is linear in the dynamic parameters and based o n multibody simulation code methodologies. Singular value decompositio n is used to find the essential parameter set, and minimum parameter s et. It is shown that a simulation of a four-bar mechanism (with spheri cal, universal, and revolute joints) and based on the estimated parame ters gives accurate response.