A geometrical setting for the Newtonian mechanics of robots (Q1820608)

A Newtonian mechanics is developed for modelling a system of mechanical manipulators. The control parameters take the role of forces. The configuration space is assumed to be a differentiable manifold Q. The first and second tangent bundles TQ and \(T^ 2Q\) are used to describe velocities and accelerations. The elements of the cotangent bundle \(T^*Q\) are called covectors and interpreted as forces. A nonsingular, symmetric and positive definite bilinear form g is assumed on TQ which is obtained from a differentiable mapping \(g: TQ\to T^*Q\). The form g is used to introduce the kinetic energy and the generalized momentum. There is a unique parallel translation which preserves the kinetic energy. A geometric invariant formulation of the equations of motion in Newtonian form is constructed. Free motion of the system is defined for vanishing force fields and used to introduce normal coordinates.