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The International Journal of Robotics Research
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Comparative Study on Serial and Parallel Forward Dynamics Algorithms for Kinematic Chains*

Katsu Yamane

Disney Research, Pittsburgh, PA USA, kyamane{at}cs.cmu.edu

Yoshihiko Nakamura

Department of Mechano-Informatics, University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan, nakamura{at}ynl.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp

The main focus of this paper is to investigate the essential differences among four forward dynamics algorithms: the Articulated-Body Algorithm (ABA) and Divide-and-Conquer Algorithm (DCA) by Featherstone; the Constraint Force Algorithm (CFA) by Fijany et al.; and the Assembly—Disassembly Algorithm (ADA) by the present authors. All of the algorithms have O(N) asymptotic complexity for serial computation where N is the number of rigid bodies, and three of them can also be processed in parallel which results in O (log N ) complexity on O (N) processors. We start by summarizing two essential backgrounds of the forward dynamics algorithms, i.e. articulated-body inertias and joint constraint representation. We then present a new formulation of ADA as well as the outlines of the other three algorithms using the same notation. Finally, we perform qualitative as well as quantitative comparisons of the algorithms using our implementations of ABA, CFA, and ADA.

Key Words: dynamics simulation • parallel computation • articulated-body inertia • complexity.

The International Journal of Robotics Research, Vol. 28, No. 5, 622-629 (2009)
DOI: 10.1177/0278364909102350
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