An overview of several formulations for multibody dynamics

In this paper several formulations for automatic generation of the equations of motion for rigid and rigid-deformable multibody systems are reviewed. The rigid-body formulations are the body-coordinate formulation based on Newton-Euler equations, a non-conventional point-coordinate formulation where rigid bodies are represented as a collection of particles, and the joint coordinate formulation that employs relative coordinates between bodies. A transformation process based on velocity relations is described for easy transformation of one formulation into another. Finally, a brief overview of the equations of motion for deformable bodies in a multibody environment is presented.