How to use the Spatial Contact Force block introduced in R2019b

Hi,

I am trying to model a contact force betweeen a cylinder and a plane. Previously I have used the "Sphere to Plane Force" in https://se.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/fileexchange/47417-simscape-multibody-contact-forces-library. However I wanted to try the new "Spatial Contact Force" in the Simscape Multibody library but I can't get it to work. I tried to connect the block directly to my cylinder and plane but it does not match, which I suspect is because the "Spatial Contact Force" does not use "Physical System" connections, se figure below.

If someone could please show an example of how to use the "Spatial Contact Force" block as well to enlighten me on which best to use between "Spatial Contact Force" and the "Sphere to Plane Force" I would be most thankful.

Sincerly

Christoffer

Answer 1

[Steve Miller]

You need to expose a Geometry port on any solids you wish to connect to the Spatial Contact Force block.

The instructions are on this page in the documentation: Modeling Contact Force Between Two Solids, section "Connect to Solid Blocks" Enable the Export: Entire Geometry option.

Then you can connect the blocks directly:

[Christoffer Hjalmarsson]

Thanks a lot!