The modelling and analysis of multibody systems can be fully achieved in the Matlab environment. It allows to prototype a model in a very short time by leveraging Matlab environments and toolboxes (easy programming and debug). The Matlab modules for Robotran are called MBSysLab.

MBSysLab Modules

The MBsysLab modules allow to perform different dynamic and kinematic computation on the multibody system. These modules operate on the data structures MBS_data , MBS_info and MBS_user.

The following modules are available :

Model loading : Loading of the model data from the xml description file (.mbs) to Matlab.
Direct dynamics : Time integration of the system direct dynamics.
Inverse dynamics : Computation of the system inverse dynamics.
Equilibrium : Computation of the system equilibrium.
Modal analysis : Computation of the system eigenmodes.
Direct Kinematics : Computation of the direct kinematics of a kinematic chain.
Inverse kinematics : Computation of loop kinematics and of the system inverse kinematics.
Coordinate partitioning : Partitionning of the generalized coordinates into independent and dependent variables (for constrained multibody Systems only).

Todo:: add ref on how to do direct kin (simply use sensor)

Data Structures

MBsysLab is based on two data structures (MBS_data, MBS_info) that contain information about :

the model description
the calculations to perform

A third structure, MBS_user is left to the user for is own simulation requirements.

These structures are required by each module to simulate and analyse the system.

Each module returns its results in a specific structure denoted MBS_<MODULE_NAME>.

For more details related to the Data Structures and to the functions to handle them see structure documentation