[vox] Luke Peterson will talk about PyDy (open source dynamicssoftware) tomorrow in Bainer 1062 @ 4:10 pm

[Jason Moore <jkmoor@ucdavis.edMAPSu>]

Hi,

Dale (Luke) Peterson will be giving a talk on PyDy, an open source software package for multi-body dynamics, tomorrow in Bainer 1062 @ 4:10pm. 

    PyDy is an open source software tool written in Python for the purpose of studying the

classical mechanics. Its is an ongoing project, but the initial development was funded through
a Google Summer of Code 2009 project. In this talk, I will discuss the motivations for PyDy,

how it got its start, it’s current capabilities, and what the future plans are.
    PyDy enables symbolic formulation of the equations of motion of mechanical systems. It
it implements Kane’s method for deriving the equations of motion, and uses the symbolic ma-

nipulator Sympy as the core for all symbolic operations. Some of the useful features of PyDy
include output of symbolically derived expressions in LaTeX form, generation of functions li-

brary (EOMS, reaction forces, energy, constraint equations, etc.) for a system, and convenient
functions for producing 3D animations. All operations are done within the Python environment,
which allows for a Matlab-like interactive workspace for manipulating the equations, numerical

integration, plotting, and OpenGL rendered 3D animations.
    The central feature of PyDy is to automate the tedious booking of transformations that are
necessary for the kinematic and dynamic description of multi-body systems. Expressing vectors

in any coordinate system is trivial with PyDy, as well the determination of angular velocity of a
frame or velocity of a point with respect to any other frame. Differentiation of vector quantities
in rotating reference frames is also handled automatically.

    The use of PyDy will be demonstrated on two simple systems: the double pendulum, and
the rolling torus. It is our goal that PyDy be a viable teaching tool for statics and dynamics at
the undergraduate and graduate level, as well for performing interesting research on multi-body

dynamical systems.
    For those interested, you can find installation instructions, browse the source, and see ex-
amples here:
                                http://github.com/hazelnusse/pydy

-- 
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Sports Biomechanics Lab, UC Davis (http://biosport.ucdavis.edu)
Davis Bike Collective Minister, Davis, CA (http://www.davisbikecollective.org)

BikeDavis.info (http://www.bikedavis.info)
Office: +01 530-752-2163
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