| SimMechanics™ | |
Sensors & Actuators
The Joint Sensor block measures the position, velocity, and/or acceleration of a joint primitive in a Joint block. It also measures the reaction force and torque across the Joint.
The Joint Sensor measures the motion along/about the joint axis (or about the pivot point for a spherical primitive) in the reference coordinate system (CS) specified for that joint primitive in the Joint's dialog. The Joint connects a base and a follower Body. The base-follower sequence determines the sense of the motion.
Depending on the joint primitive being sensed, you measure a combination of outputs from one of these motion types:
| Motion Type | Joint Primitive Type | Measurements |
|---|---|---|
| Translational | Prismatic | Linear position Linear velocity Linear acceleration |
| Rotational | Revolute | Angle Angular velocity Acceleration |
| Spherical | Spherical | Quaternion Quaternion first derivative Quaternion second derivative |
The input is the connector port connected to the Joint being sensed. The outport is a set of Simulink® signals or one bundled Simulink signal of the position, velocity, acceleration, computed force, and/or reaction force of the joint primitive.
A Joint Sensor block measures one joint primitive at a time:
A primitive Joint (Prismatic or Revolute) has only one primitive within the Joint to sense.
A composite Joint has multiple joint primitives within, and you must choose which primitive to sense with the Joint Sensor.
A body's orientation rotation matrix R relates vector components measured in the body CS and in the inertial World CS by [R]·vb = vs. The column vector vb lists the vector v's three components measured in the body CS. The column vector vs lists the vector v's three components measured in the World CS.
The reaction force and torque are three-component vectors of the force and torque that the joint transfers from the base Body to the follower Body.
The computed force is the component of the reaction force projected along the prismatic primitive axis. It is also the force along the prismatic axis that reproduces the follower motion with respect to the base.
The computed torque is the component of the reaction torque projected along the revolute primitive axis. It is also the torque about the revolute axis that reproduces the follower motion with respect to the base.
Joint Reaction and Computed Force (Prismatic Case)
The Joint Sensor block measures the state of a degree of freedom, translational or rotational. It measures this state relative to the home configuration of the machine, the machine state before the application of initial condition actuators and assembly of disassembled joints. Thus the Joint Sensor measures the effect of the latter, which act before the simulation starts.
The dialog has one active area, Measurements. The block parameters are not displayed unless you connect it to a specific Joint block.
In the pull-down menu, choose the joint primitive within the Joint that you want to measure with the Joint Sensor. A primitive Joint block has only one joint primitive.
If the Joint Sensor is not connected to a Joint block, this menu is not shown.
Select this check box to convert all the output signals into a single bundled signal. The default is selected. If you clear it, the Joint Sensor block will grow as many Simulink outports as there are active signals selected, in the same order top to bottom, in the dialog.
If the check box is selected, the Simulink signal out has all the active signals ordered into a single row vector. The order and type of the signal components depend on the joint primitive, as listed in the Simulink signal tables following.
The Measurements pane you see in the Joint Sensor dialog depends on the type of joint primitive to which you connect the Joint Sensor.
In the Primitive Outputs area, select the check box(es) for each of the possible measurements you want to make: Position, Velocity, Acceleration, and Computed force.
In the Units pull-down menus, choose the units for each of the measurements you want. The defaults are m (meters), m/s (meters/second), m/s2 (meters/second2), N (newtons), respectively, for Position, Velocity, Acceleration, and Computed force.
The bundled Simulink output signal for a prismatic primitive has these measurements ordered in a row vector. Nonselected components are removed from the vector signal:
| Position | Velocity | Acceleration | Computed Force | Reaction Torque (3-vector) | Reaction Force (3-vector) |
In the Primitive Outputs area, select the check box(es) for each of the possible measurements you want to make: Angle, Angular velocity, Angular acceleration, and Computed torque.
In the Units pull-down menus, choose the units for each of the measurements you want. The defaults are deg (degrees), deg/s (degrees/second), deg/s2 (degrees/second2), N*m (newton-meters), and N (newtons), respectively, for Angle, Angular Velocity, Angular Acceleration, and Computed torque.
The bundled Simulink output signal for a revolute primitive has these measurements ordered in a row vector. Nonselected components are removed from the vector signal:
| Angle | Angular Velocity | Angular Acceleration | Computed Torque | Reaction Torque (3-vector) | Reaction Force (3-vector) |
Tip The absolute angle of revolute motion is mapped on to the interval (-180o, +180o] degrees or (-π,+π] radians. |
In the Primitive Outputs area, select the check box(es) for each of the possible measurements you want to make: Quaternion, Quaternion, derivative, and Quaternion, second derivative.
Quaternions are dimensionless, 4-component row vectors. The time unit for the derivatives is seconds.
The bundled Simulink output signal for a spherical primitive has these quaternion measurements ordered into a larger row vector. Nonselected components are removed from the vector signal:
| Quaternion (4-vector) | Quaternion, derivative (4-vector) | Quaternion, second derivative (4-vector) | Reaction Torque (3-vector) | Reaction Force (3-vector) |
In the Joint Reactions area, select the check box(es) for each of the possible measurements you want to make.
Select the check box to output the reaction torque.
Select the check box to output the reaction force.
Choose the Body on which the reaction force and torque vectors are measured, Base or Follower. The default is Base.
In the pull-down menu, choose the coordinate system in which the reaction torque and force vectors are measured: either the Local (Body CS) to which the Sensor is connected or the default Absolute (World).
In the Absolute case, the force and torque vectors have components measured relative to the inertial World CS axes. In the Local case, the same force and torque signals are premultiplied by the inverse orientation rotation matrix R-1 = RT for the Body selected in Reactions measured on.
Here is a Joint Sensor connected to a Prismatic that connects two Bodies:
You must add an Sensor port (connector port) to the Joint block to connect the Joint Sensor to it. The base (B)-follower (F) Body sequence on the two sides of the Joint determines the sense of the Joint Sensor data.
Body Sensor, Constraint & Driver Sensor, Joint Actuator, Joint Initial Condition Actuator, Joint Stiction Actuator, Mechanical Branching Bar, Prismatic, Revolute, Spherical
See Kinematics and the Machine's State of Motion, Body Motion in SimMechanics™ Representation, and Sensing Motions and Forces.
In Simulink, see the Signal Routing Library and the Sinks Library.
| Joint Initial Condition Actuator | Joint Spring & Damper | |
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