In this paper we present a simulator designed to handle multibody systems with changing constraints, wherein the equations
of motion for each of its constraint configurations are formulated in minimal ODE form with constraints embedded before they
are passed to an ODE solver. The constraint-embedded equations are formulated symbolically according to a re-combination of
terms of the unconstrained equations, and this symbolic process is undertaken on-line by the simulator. Constraint-embedding
undertaken on-the-fly enables the simulation of systems with an ODE solver for which constraints are not known prior to simulation
start or for which the enumeration of all constraint conditions would be unwieldy because of their complexity or number. Issues
of drift associated with DAE solvers that usually require stabilization are sidestepped with the constraint-embedding approach.
We apply nomenclature developed for hybrid dynamical systems to describe the system with changing constraints and to distinguish
the roles of the forward dynamics solver, a collision detector, and an impact resolver. We have prototyped the simulator in
MATLAB and demonstrate the design using three representative examples.
Keywords symbolic manipulation - changing constraints - constraint embedding - hybrid dynamical systems