Redundant configuration coordinates and nonholonomic velocity coordinates in analytical mechanics

Abstract

Several established concepts of analytical mechanics are reviewed and extended to include redundant configuration coordinates and nonholonomic velocity coordinates. The main motivation for redundant coordinates is that the resulting formulations can be global, whereas minimal coordinates might necessarily be local depending on the topology of the configuration space e.g. for SO(3). The resulting formulations for Lagrange’s equations, the Gibbs-Appell equations and the coefficients of the Levi-Civita connection are derived. These are then applied to the example of the free rigid body to derive the well-known Newton-Euler equations.