A dynamic model for multi-rigid-body systems which consists of
interconnected rigid bodies based on particle
dynamics and a recursive approach is presented. The method uses the concepts of
linear and angular momentums to generate the rigid body equations
of motion in terms of the Cartesian coordinates of a dynamically
equivalent constrained system of particles, without introducing
any rotational coordinates and the corresponding rotational
transformation matrix. For the open-chain system, the equations of
motion are generated recursively along the serial chains. A
closed-chain system is transformed to open-chain by cutting
suitable kinematical joints and introducing cut-joint constraints.
An example is chosen to demonstrate the generality and simplicity
of the developed formulation.