Published online by Cambridge University Press: 09 March 2009
A new method for computer forming of dynamic equations of open-chain mechanical robot configurations is presented. The algorithm used is of a numeric-iterative type, based on mathematical apparatus of screw theory, which has enabled elimination of the unnecessary computations in the process of dynamic model derivation. In addition to conventional kinematic schemes of robotic manipulators, the branched kinematic chains which have recently found their application in the locomotion of robotic mechanisms were also treated. Both the inverse and direct problems of dynamics were addressed. A comparative analysis was carried out of the numerical complexity of various existing algorithms of numeric-iterative type dealing with the problems of spatial active mechanisms dynamics. It has been shown that the proposed method regardless of its generality, approaches by its models complexity symbolic models, which are valid for particular robotic mechanisms only where they achieve a high degree of efficiency.