Impacts between multibody systems and deformable structures

The final target point of the presented research leads us to bio - inspired mobile robots, especially those able to reconstruct the natural mobility of gibbons. The principal mode of their locomotion is called brachiation. It consists of swinging from branch to branch for distances of up to 15 m and at speeds up to 50 km/h (Figure 1). We may address the readers to several brachiation techniques and constructions presented in the technical literature [1 - 5]. Seeing several similarities, we may classify the brachi ation robots as a branch of the walking ones (Fig.1a). Each research on the brachiation dynamics is challenging, mainly because of their multitasking: the system's number of degrees of freedom varies during the motion (i.e., we need model a nonlinear time - varying system), unilateral constraints are present (i.e., impact forces can appear) at selected stages of their locomotion, the investigated systems are kinematically or dynamically overactuated.