Regularization and stability of the constraints in the dynamics of multibody systems

In the analysis of multibody dynamics, we are often required to deal with singularity problems where the constraint Jacobian matrix may become less than full rank at some instantancous configurations. This creates numerical instability which will affect the performance of the mechanical system. A modification procedure of the constraints when they vanish or become linearly dependent is proposed to regularize the dynamics of the system. A distinction between the asymptotic stability due to the representation of the constraints (at the velocity and acceleration level), and the one due to the singularity is discussed in full in this paper. It is shown that Baumgarte technique could be extended to accommodate the representation of the constraints in the neighborhood of singularity. A two link planar manipulator undergoing large motion and passing through a singular configuration is used to illustrate the proposed stability technique.