Check out the brand new video on our YouTube page showing a simulation of a double pendulum using two rigid links. The kinematics are defined using two revolute joints for rotation, and rigid translations to define the centers of rotation. Double pendulums are famous for being chaotic, a small change in initial conditions lead to a large change in response. Here, we show this by gradually increasing the initial angle, where the pendulum motion starts out as fairly simple and repeated oscillation, it becomes more and more disorderly as the initial angle increases, with the second link eventually doing complete flips relative to the first link. Learn to build a model like the animation below, and video after the jump.
