Formulation of Rigid Multibody Systems in Space

Abstract

Equations of motion of a rigid multibody system whose base is free such as space structures are treated in this paper. First, we derive the equations of motion which denote the position of the center of mass of one body as generalized coordinates. These equations are easily applied to the base-fixed system as manipulators. Then, we derive the equations of motion which denote the position of the center of mass of the system as generalized coordinates. These equations are preferable for space structures because the orbital motion and the attitude motion are separated. The method of derivation is based on Kane's equations of motion. The method is suited not only for the tree configuration system, but also for the loop configuration system with cutting loops and using Lagrange's multipliers as constraint forces. The method has a high computation efficiency, and a computer simulation program is developed based on this method.