Symbolic generation of the kinematics of multibody systems in EasyDyn: From MuPAD to Xcas/Giac

In the EasyDyn multibody open source project, computer algebra has been used from the beginning to generate the expressions of velocities and accelerations of the bodies, by symbolic differentiation of their position. Originally, the MuPAD computer algebra system had been retained because it was freely available for non commercial purposes and showed very good technical features. Unfortunately, MuPAD is nowadays only available through commercial channels and needs to be replaced to keep EasyDyn publicly available. This paper presents why Xcas/Giac is finally selected, among other long-term promising projects like Axiom, Maxima, Sage or Yacas. Among the choice criteria, the accessibility, the portability, the ease of use, the automatic export to C language, and the similarity with the MuPAD language are all considered. The performances of the MuPAD and Xcas/Giac implementations are also compared on some examples.