Forward Dynamics of Variable Topology Mechanisms - The Case of Constraint Activation

arXiv:2604.19419v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Many mechanical systems exhibit changes in their kinematic topology altering the mobility. Ideal contact is the best known cause, but also stiction and controlled locking of parts of a mechanism lead to topology changes. The latter is becoming an important issue in human-machine interaction. Anticipating the dynamic behavior of variable topology mechanisms requires solving a non-smooth dynamic problem. The core challenge is a physically meaningful transition condition at the topology switching events. Such a condition is presented in this paper. Two versions are reported, one using projected motion equations in terms of redundant coordinates, and another one using the Voronets equations in terms of minimal coordinates. Their computational properties are discussed. Results are shown for joint locking of a planar 3R mechanisms and a 6DOF industrial manipulator.

Related

• Singularity Avoidance in Inverse Kinematics: A Unified Treatment of Classical and Learning-based Methods
• On the Terminology and Geometric Aspects of Redundant Parallel Manipulators
• Novel Algorithms for Smoothly Differentiable and Efficiently Vectorizable Contact Manifold Construction
• Periodic Steady-State Control of a Handkerchief-Spinning Task Using a Parallel Anti-Parallelogram Tendon-driven Wrist

Source: arXiv cs.RO | 2026-04-22