Explicit Poincaré equations of motion for general constrained systems . Part II . Applications to multi - body dynamics and nonlinear control

The power of the new equations of motion developed in part I of this paper is illustrated using three examples from multi-body dynamics. The first two examples deal with the problem of accurately controlling the orientation of a rigid body, while the third example deals with the synchronization of two rigid bodies so that their relative orientations are ‘locked’ through prescribed dynamical relationships. The ease, simplicity and accuracy with which control of such highly nonlinear systems is achieved are demonstrated.