An orthonormal tangent space method for constrained multibody systems Original Research Article

An automatic computer code for constructing an orthonormal basis of tangent (null) space for constrained multibody systems is proposed. The method uses the Gram-Schmidt vector orthogonalization process, adjusted to the Riemannian geometry formalism. An important and useful peculiarity of the formulation is that the minimal-order (purely differential) equations of the constrained motion are obtained directly in the resolved form, i.e. the mass matrix of the equations is the unity matrix. Some other interesting features of the formulation, leading to additional gain in efficiency of the dynamic analysis of constrained systems, are also reported.