This paper presents a methodology for contact detection between convex quadric surfaces using its implicit equations. With some small modifications in the equations, one can model superellipsoids, superhyperboloids of one or two sheets and supertoroids. This methodology is to be implemented on a multibody dynamics code, in order to simulate the interpenetration between mechanical systems, particularly, the simulation of collisions with motor vehicles and other road users, such as cars, motorcycles and pedestrians.

The contact detection of two bodies is formulated as a convex nonlinear constrained optimization problem that is solved using two methods, an Interior Point method (IP) and a Sequential Quadratic Programming method (SQP), coded in MATLAB and FORTRAN environment, respectively. The objective function to be minimized is the distance between both surfaces. The design constraints are the implicit superquadrics surfaces equations and operations between its normal vectors and the distance itself. The contact points or the points that minimize the distance between the surfaces are the design variables. Computational efficiency can be improved by using Bounding Volumes in contact detection pre-steps. First one approximate the geometry using spheres, and then Oriented Bounding Boxes (OBB).

Results show that the optimization technique suits for the accurate contact detection between objects modelled by implicit superquadric equations.

The purpose of the present research relates to the sensitivity analysis of road vehicle comfort and handling performances with respect to suspension technological parameters. The envisaged suspension being of semi-active nature, this implies first to consider an hybrid modeling approach consisting of a 3D multibody model of the full car - an Audi A6 in our case - coupled with the electro-hydraulic model of the suspension dampers. Concerning parameter sensitivitie, the goal is to capture them for themselves - and not necessarily for optimization purpose - because their knowledge is of a great interest for the damper manufacturer.

An important issue of the research is to consider objective functions which are based on complete time integrations along a given trajectory, the goal being - for instance - to quantify the sensitivity of the carbody rms acceleration (comfort) or of the vehicle overturning character (handling) with respect to suspension parameters. On one hand, the accuracy of the various partial derivatives computation can be greatly enhanced thanks to the symbolic capabilities of our ROBOTRAN multibody program. On the other hand, the computational efficiency of the process also takes advantage of the recursive formulation of the multibody equations of motion which must be time integrated with respect to both the generalized coordinates and their partial derivatives in case of the so-called direct method underlying sensitivity analysis.

Dual quaternions and dual quaternion interpolation are powerful mathematical tools for the spatial analysis of rigid body motions. In this paper, after a review of some basic results and formulas, it will be presented an attempt to use these tools for the the kinematic modeling of human joints. In particular, the kinematic parameters extracted from experimentally acquired data are compared with those theoretically computed from dual quaternions rigid body motion interpolation.

The paper presents optimization of 5-rod (5-link) suspension mechanism used in passenger cars for independent guiding of the wheels. Selected stiffness coefficients defined for five elastomeric bushings installed in joints of the suspension rods are considered as design variables. Two models with lumped parameters (i.e. elastokinematic and dynamic) of wheel-suspension-car body system are formulated to describe relationships between the design variables and the performance indexes including car active safety and ride comfort, respectively. The multi-criteria goal function is minimized using a deterministic algorithm. The suspension with optimized bushings rates fulfils desired elastokinematic criteria together with a defined dynamic criterion, describing the so-called rolling comfort. An event of car passing over short road bump is considered as dynamic conditions. The numerical example deals with an actual middle-class passenger car with 5-rod suspension at the front driven axle. Estimation of the models parameters and their verification were carried out on the basis of indoor and outdoor experiments. The proposed optimization procedure can be used to improve the suspension design or development cycle.

The goal of the project is to investigate the influence of elastic mechanisms on technical, bipedal locomotion. In particular, the paper presents the parameter identification for a biologically inspired two-legged robot model. The simulation model consists of a rigid body model equipped with rubber straps. The arrangement of the rubber straps is based on the arrangement of certain muscle groups in a human being. The parameters of the elastic elements are identified applying numerical optimisation. Thus two optimisation algorithms are investigated and compared with respect to robustness and computing time. Moreover, different objective functions are defined and discussed. The behaviour of the resulting configuration of the system is explored in terms of biomechanics.

One of the applications of tether system is in the field of satellite technology, where the mother ship and satellite equipment are connected with a cable. In order to grasp the motion of this kind of tether system in detail, the tether can be effectively modeled as flexible body and dealt by multibody dynamic analysis. In the analysis and modeling of flexible body of tether, large deformation and large displacement must be considered. Multibody dynamic analysis such as Absolute Nodal Coordinate Formulation with an introduction of the effect of damping force formulation can be used to describe the motion behavior of a flexible body. In this study, a parameter identification technique via an experimental approach is proposed in order to verify the modeling method. An example of swing-up control using the genetic algorithm control approach is performed through simulation and experiment. The validity of the model and availability of motion control based on multibody dynamics analysis are shown by comparison between numerical simulation and experiment.