Intensified automation related to computer integrated manufacturing (CIM) is viewed by Soviet planning authorities as a major means for increased productivity in Soviet industry. But efforts to increase automation are conditioned by the political–economic environment in which industrial production Systems are engineered and managed. The forces driving Soviet automation efforts are examined, and some tentative judgments are made on the proposed prospects for implementing changes aimed at enhancing the potential contribution of CIM to increased productivity in Soviet industry. The article is based on author's chapters in a forthcoming book, Soviet Automation: Perspectives and Prospects, edited by Jack Baranson (Mt. Airy, Md.: Lomond Publications, 1987).

The general problem of including impulse effects in Lagrangian dynamics is discussed. A self-consistent method is developed, and a block-diagram representation, including initial conditions, is introduced that displays the feature of the method. Example of a collision of two dissimilar robots is provided for illustration.