The bouncing motion appearing in a robotic system with unilateral constraint

The hopping or bouncing motion can be observed when robotic manipulators are sliding on a rough surface. Making clear the reason of generating such phenomenon is important for the control and dynamical analysis for mechanical systems. In particular, such phenomenon may be related to the problem of Painlevé paradox. By using LCP theory, a general criterion for identifying the bouncing motion appearing in a planar multibody system subject to single unilateral constraint is established, and found its application to a two-link robotic manipulator that comes in contact with a rough constantly moving belt. The admissible set in state space that can assure the manipulator keeping contact with the rough surface is investigated, and found which is influenced by the value of the friction coefficient and the configuration of the system. Painlevé paradox can cause either multiple solutions or non-existence of solutions in calculating contact force. Developing some methods to fill in the flaw is also important for perfecting the theory of rigid-body dynamics. The properties of the tangential impact relating to the inconsistent case of Painlevé paradox have been discovered in this paper, and a jump rule for determining the post-states after the tangential impact finishes is developed. Finally, the comprehensively numerical simulation for the two-link robotic manipulator is carried out, and its dynamical behaviors such as stick-slip, the bouncing motion due to the tangential impact at contact point or the external forces, are exhibited.