How can I visualize a rope that connects 2 points in simulink Virtual Reality vrsink-Block?

Hello,

I am working on a 3D-Pendulum and already visualized the attachment base and the bob. The movement of the bob is already defined completely through physical force-constraints in simulink and I can visualize the movement in the vrsink-block. Now I would like to visualize the rope, that connects the center of the bob with the attachment point. The rope is modeled as a spring-damper and has variable lenght. Which function do I have to use to visually connect these 2 points?

Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

[Jan Houska]

Hi Lukas,

this depends if you want the rope to be rigid or flexible. If rigid, please use a Cylinder node (a very tall one so it looks like a rope) and move/resize/rotate it using a Transform node. Please note that you cannot specify kinematic joints in Simulink 3D Animation, so you must compute the rotation of the rope and feed it into the Transform node yourself.

Showing a flexible rope is also possible, but it would be quite complex to compute the coordinates so that the rope realistically models the behavior of a flexible rope.

Please take a look at the "vrcrane" family of examples (vrcrane_traj, vrcrane_panel, vrcrane_joystick) to see an example how a rope connecting a crane with a load can be modeled.

Good Luck, Jan

[Lukas Weber]

Hello Jan,

thank you for your response. The rope is rigid and I will try modeling it as a cylinder node as you mentioned.