Linear-Time Dynamics for Multibody Systems with General Joint Models

Weiguang Si, Brian K. Guenter

Abstract: Most current linear-time forward dynamics algorithms support only simple types of joints due to difficulties in computing derivatives of joint transformations up to order two.We apply the D* symbolic differentiation algorithm to a recursive formulation of forward dynamics to get a highly efficient linear-time forward dynamics algorithm supporting multibody systems with general scleronomic joints. With this new algorithm we can easily build a treetopology multibody system with complex joint models and perform forward dynamics efficiently. The source code for the algorithm is freely available for non-commercial use.