Efficient Dynamic Simulation of Multiple Chain Robotic Mechanisms

An efficient O(mN) algorithm for the dynamic simulation of simple closed-chain robotic mechanisms in this paper, where m is the number of chains, and N is the number of links for each chain. A wide range of contact conditions between each of the chains and the support surface or common body, load, or object may be simulated so that the algorithm is applicable to multilegged vehicles, multiple manipulators, and dexterous hands. The algorithm is based on the computation of the operational space inertia matrix (6×6) for each chain as seen by the common body, load, or object