Methods for Automated Dynamic Analysis of Discrete Mechanical Systems

The equations of motion for any discrete, lower pair mechanical system can be obtained by analyzing a branched, three-dimensional compound pendulum of indefinite length. In this paper, a set of expressions which provides the equations of motion of arbitrary mechanical dynamic systems directly as ordinary differential equations are presented. These expressions and the associated technique is applicable to linear and nonlinear unconstrained dynamic systems, kinematic systems and multidegree-of-freedom constrained systems.