Dynamic simulation of three-dimensional rigid body systems using Vector-Network techniques

This paper describes a new approach to the problem of motion prediction. An extension of the “Vector-Network” method to rigid body systems in 3-D is introduced. This procedure, with its computational implementation, is shown to eliminate the work of analytically modelling a dynamic system in order to generate its time response. The entire procedure (Vector-Network) is a basic application of concepts of graph theory in which laws of vector dynamics are combined. The principle of orthogonality is reviewed and a specific application to the generation of equations of motion is presented. Moreover, various new terminal equations are shown to be necessary in the derivation of this algorithm. It is observed that this procedure is very attractive and may prove to be helpful due to its simplicity and basic application of Newton's law.