Simulating rigid robots constrained by stiff contact

A simulation environment, based on a general purpose differential algebraic equation solver, for the dynamic simulation of robot manipulators moving either in the free space or in interaction with surfaces is presented in the paper. The collision surfaces are modelled either as compliant surfaces or as perfectly rigid surfaces. To show the performance of the simulation environment a case study is considered, that refers to the real robot MANUTEC R3.<
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