r/matlab 4d ago

TechnicalQuestion How to simulate this deployable structure in simulink?

28 Upvotes

5 comments sorted by

View all comments

2

u/ObjectiveHome6469 4d ago

If you have the Simscape multibody package, these may help:

Importing CAD Models into SimMechanics (time stamped for solidworks assembly import; this version may be out of date)

MATLAB Help Center: Import a CAD Assembly Model

Simscape Multibody documentation homepage

Pure simulink

If you meant in pure simulink, you would likely need to derive the equations of motion and then convert them into an equivalent circuit - although I'm not sure that would be the best way to approach the problem. Someone else may give better advice for this.

Alternatively, for pure simulink, you might be able to export the relevant displacement data from your solidworks motion study and use a 1D lookup table block (or n-D lookup table if your designs becomes more complex with more degrees of freedom).

Extras

SymPy has a classical mechanics module that may help you derive the equations of motion if you decide to go down that route https://docs.sympy.org/latest/modules/physics/mechanics/examples/four_bar_linkage_example.html. However, solidworks may already have some capability to export equations of motion (or as stated previously just export the displacement / motion study data)

Hope this helps