How to constrain a cable in Simscape

Hello,

I have a problem that has been bothering me for a long time, and I hope someone can help me out.

Suppose I have three objects A, B, and C. A and C are connected by one cable, which is easy to achieve by using belt-cable end. However, now there is a hole in the center of B, and this cable needs to pass through this hole. How can this function be achieved or what constraints are used?

Thanks in advance!!!

Answer 1

[Dhruv]

To constrain a cable to pass through a hole in an object in Simscape, you can use a combination of Contact Force and a Constraint block.

1. Create a Simscape model with three Solid blocks for objects A, B, and C. Use a Belt-Cable block to connect A and C with a cable. Create a hole in object B using a Geometry block.
2. Add a Contact Force block to simulate the interaction between the cable and the hole in B. Add a Constraint block to constrain the cable to pass through the hole in B.
3. Configure the Contact Force block to act on the cable and the hole in B with zero friction.
4. Configure the Constraint block to limit the movement of the cable in the X, Y, and Z directions. Then, run the simulation and adjust parameters as needed.

Please refer to the following documentation link which will help you get started:

Model contact between two geometries - MATLAB (mathworks.com)

[Eric Tian]

Hi Dhruv,

Thank you for your kind feedback, which is very helpful. However, I still have two questions:

1. As for your first step, what do you mean is that I create a Cylindrical Solid to replace the hole, so that I can add contact force between "hole" and B, right?
2. As you mentioned in the second step, I would like to know how to constrain the cable to pass through the hole. As I cannot directly add any constraint to this cable or export the geometry of the cable.

Thanks in advace!!!!