Dynamic analysis of rodlike object deformation towards their dynamic manipulation

In manufacturing processes, there are many manipulative operations which deal with deformable objects. In this paper we analyse the dynamic motion analysis of deformable rodlike objects. First, a geometric representation to describe the shape of a rodlike object with dynamic deformation is introduced. The potential and kinetic energy of the object and the geometric constraints imposed on it are then formulated. The shape of the dynamically deforming object can be derived by minimizing the difference between the kinetic energy and potential energy under the geometric constraints. Next, a procedure to compute the deformed shape is developed by use of Euler's approach. Finally, some numerical examples are shown in order to demonstrate how the proposed approach computes the shapes of deformed rodlike objects.