Flexible robot models with revolute and prismatic joints. Handling of closed loops (Q1111784)

In the dynamics of multibody systems with deformable components, structures with material boundary conditions, e.g., revolute joints (turning pairs), and tree structure, e.g., open chains, have been considered. Until quite recently, only a few contributions have taken into consideration the effects of non-material constraints, e.g., by means of prismatic joints (sliding pairs) and the handling of closed loops, respectively. But these effects have been investigated either incompletely or not simultaneously. The first detailed investigations deriving the equations of motion for such non-material systems, but without closed loops, have been carried out in the recent past. As a supplement, here the extension to closed loop systems will be studied, namely, in the first part with an example of a simple one-body distributed parameter system and in the second part for a planar two-body system with beam-shaped structural members as a typical sub-class of general flexible non-material multibody systems involving closed loops.