EQUIVALENCE OF THE DRIVING ELASTIC FORCES IN FLEXIBLE MULTIBODY SYSTEMS

When the driving joint forces, determined using the inverse dynamics procedure, are applied in the feedforward control of mechanical systems, discrepancies between the specified and the actual motion are observed. In some recent publications, these discrepancies were attributed to the wave phenomenon. It is shown in this investigation that the solution of the inverse dynamics of flexible mechanical systems defines two types of driving forces which can be classified as driving joint forces and driving elastic forces. The driving joint forces which depend on the deformation of the flexible bodies define the torque and the actuator forces which must be applied at the joints. The driving elastic forces are associated with the deformation degrees of freedom, and therefore, there is no gaurantee that an algorithm that ignores these driving elastic forces will converge and achieve the desired solution. It is the objective of this investigation to examine the nature of the driving elastic forces in the solution of the inverse dynamics problem, and demonstrate that the driving elastic forces associated with two different sets of vibration modes which produce the same physical displacements are basically the same and they differ only by a co-ordinate transformation. The effect of the selection of the deformable body co-ordinate system on these forces is also examined numerically using a slider crank mechanism with a flexible connecting rod.