Contact Modelling - Simulink

Hi everyone, I am doing a 3D simulation of a flat surface (tray) being driven along by a set of wheels. I have only set ridgid body contact between the wheels (in red) and the bottom of the tray using a 2D circle to finite line Simscape block.

The Problem: The contact surface of the tray does not sit on top of the wheels where i want it. So when the simulation starts, the tray does not move along the spinning wheels as it should.

[Yifeng Tang]

The tags on the question say that you are using R2021a. In this case, the Spatial Contact Force block may be an easier solution here. The limitation is that it only handles convex hull geometries, but if your tray has a flat bottom, it's probably OK.

Answer 1

[Steve Miller]

As Yifeng mentioned, the Spatial Contact Force block supports CAD geometries for MATLAB R2020a and higher.

The Simscape Multibody Contact Force Library, which contains the "2D circle to finite line" block you mentioned, can also work.

Things you need to watch out for:

1. Initial position of the tray - you probably need to set the Target Position inside the joint that connects the tray to World.
2. Make sure friction is turned on.

If you upload the model we can take a closer look.

Thanks

--Steve