Inverse dynamics in rigid body mechanics

Inverse Dynamics is used to calculate the forces and moments in the joints of multibody systems investigated in fields such as Biomechanics or Robotics. In a didactic spirit, this paper begins with an overview of the derivations of the kinematical and dynamical equations of rigid bodies from the point of view of modern Continuum Mechanics. Then, it introduces a matrix formulation for the solution of Inverse Dynamics problems and, finally, reports a simple two-dimensional example of application to a problem in Biomechanics.