The Dynamics of Coupled Planar Rigid Bodies, Part II: Bifurcations, Periodic Solutions, and Chaos.

Abstract

Part I of this paper, namely Sreenath, Oh, Krishnaprasad, and Marsden [1987], hereafter denoted [I], studied the Hamiltonian structure and equilibria for interconnected planar rigid bodies, with the primary focus being on the case of three bodies coupled with hinge joints. The Hamiltonian structure was obtained by the reduction technique, starting with the canonical Hamiltonian structure in material representation and then quotienting by the group of Euclidean motions.