Is it possible to apply an external force to different bodies of a multi-body system based known center of pressure coordinates?

I am interested in using the External Force and Torque blocks in Simscape Multibody to apply a point load to a multibody system. I have time series data for forces, moments, and centers of pressue. However, based on the center of pressure data, the forces and moments would need to be applied to different bodies throughout the simulation. Further, they would need to be applied using time-varying spatial transforms. Does anybody have suggestions for how to conditionally assign the External Force and Torque blocks to different bodies?

Answer 1

[J Chen]

Use a External Force and Torque block at each point the force is applied. You can use sensors to get forces and displacements and Simulink tblocks to perform spatial transforms. Use Simulink-PS Converter block to feed the Simulink output to the External Force and Torque block.

[Michael McGeehan]

Hi J chen,

Thanks for the reply. Could you elaborate a little bit? If I'm intepretting what you're saying correctly, you're suggest using an external force and torque block for each body/frame to which the force would be applied. Then using spatial transforms to determine whether or not the bodies would be in contact and enabling the forces based on this?

Thanks again.