Symbolic Linearized Equations for Nonholonomic Multibody Systems With Closed-Loop Kinematics

Multibody systems and associated equations of motion may be distinguished in many ways: holonomic and nonholonomic, linear and nonlinear, tree-structured and closed-loop kinematics, symbolic and numeric equations of motion. The present paper deals with a symbolic derivation of nonlinear equations of motion for nonholonomic multibody systems with closed-loop kinematics, where any generalized coordinates and velocities may be used for describing their kinematics. Loop constraints are taken into account by algebraic equations and Lagrange multipliers. The paper then focuses on the derivation of the corresponding linear equations of motion by eliminating the Lagrange multipliers and applying a computationally efficient symbolic linearization procedure. As demonstration example, a vehicle model with differential steering is used where validity of the approach is shown by comparing the behavior of the linearized equations with their nonlinear counterpart via simulations.