Determination of Joint Reactions in Multibody Systems: Some Existing Approaches and a Recent Contribution

In this paper, first, some existing computer-oriented codes for the derivation of equations of motion and the determination of joint reactions in multibody systems are reviewed. Then, on this background, a novel approach to the determination of joint reactions is introduced, naturally related to the minimal-form formulations of multibody dynamics. For open-loop systems an augmented joint coordinate formulation is developed, and a modification of the coordinate partitioning method is proposed for closed-loop systems. The introduced schemes for the determination of joint reactions are especjally efficient - no matrix investion is required. As such they are well suited for both symbolic manipulations and computational implementations. An illustrative example is provided.