Modeling and Simulation of Multibody Systems - Part I

Modeling and Simulation of Multibody Systems - Part I

This course aims at acquainting you with the modeling and simulation of complex articulated mechanical systems, denoted as multibody systems, such as vehicles, merry-go-rounds, motorbikes, cranes, human bodies, suspensions, robot manipulators, mechanical transmissions, etc.

This course is based on (1) video clips focusing on the main theoretical background and concepts, (2) well-illustrated written sections giving more details about the mathematical formulation, and (3) questions, exercises and modeling projects.

Despite the intrinsic complexity of such systems in terms of morphology and motions, basic skills in Newtonian mechanics, linear algebra and numerical methods are sufficient to model them, provided that the endless and tedious computation related to their internal kinematics and dynamics are at our disposal. This is the purpose of the symbolic program ROBOTRAN*, which can be used with this course and can automatically generate the full set of equations of motion of MBS, in a symbolic manner, i.e. exactly as if you were writing them by hand, whatever the size and the morphological complexity of the application. Hence, this course will instead teach you how to intervene upstream and downstream this generation step.

Upstream the latter, you will learn how to translate a real system, e.g. a car suspension, into a virtual multibody model comprising bodies, joints, internal or external forces and torques and imposed motion… with a level of refinement that will be dictated by the original issue. For example, what is the minimum tire ground force when the car suspension is excited by a shaker?