Can MechanicalSystems handle simulation problems involving three-dimensional gyroscopic forces?
Yes, it can. Because of the difficulty in tracking the rapidly changing coordinates of the gyroscopic bodies, gyroscopic problems (where some bodies in the model are spinning at a much higher frequency than the motion of interest) suffer in accuracy and efficiency when three-dimensional reference-point coordinates are used. MechanicalSystems provides two alternative methods to deal with such problems. First, special gyroscopic constraints can be used to efficiently represent bodies that spin about one of their principal axes. Second, and more generally, generalized angular coordinates may be used to represent the spinning body regardless of its symmetry or balance.
