Multibody Contact Force Block Examples in Simscape Multibody

Examples demonstrating contact force modeling in Simscape Multibody

This repository contains a set of examples that demonstrate the Spatial Contact Force block and Planar Contact Force block. The examples cover:

• Solid-to-solid contact between parameterized solids like bricks, spheres, and cylinders
• Contact between CAD geometry including STEP files.
• Point Cloud definition for efficient contact modeling of complex shapes.
• Grid Surface modeling for efficient contact modeling with terrain.
• Custom force law definition including collision and friction forces.

Use the "Download from GitHub" button above to access files compatible with the current release of MATLAB.

You can also try these examples in MATLAB Online.

Use the links below to access files compatible with earlier releases of MATLAB.

• For R2025b: Use the Download button above
• For R2025a: https://github.com/mathworks/Spatial-Contact-Force-Examples-Simscape-Multibody/archive/refs/tags/25.1.1.7.zip
• For R2024b: https://github.com/mathworks/Spatial-Contact-Force-Examples-Simscape-Multibody/archive/refs/tags/24.2.1.7.zip
• For R2024a: https://github.com/mathworks/Spatial-Contact-Force-Examples-Simscape-Multibody/archive/refs/tags/24.1.1.6.zip
• For R2023b: https://github.com/mathworks/Spatial-Contact-Force-Examples-Simscape-Multibody/archive/refs/tags/23.2.1.6.zip
• For R2023a: https://github.com/mathworks/Spatial-Contact-Force-Examples-Simscape-Multibody/archive/refs/tags/23.1.1.5.zip
• For R2022b: https://github.com/mathworks/Spatial-Contact-Force-Examples-Simscape-Multibody/archive/refs/tags/22.2.1.5.zip
• For R2022a: https://github.com/mathworks/Spatial-Contact-Force-Examples-Simscape-Multibody/archive/refs/tags/22.1.1.5.zip
• For R2021b: https://github.com/mathworks/Spatial-Contact-Force-Examples-Simscape-Multibody/archive/refs/tags/21.2.1.3.zip
• For R2021a: https://github.com/mathworks/Spatial-Contact-Force-Examples-Simscape-Multibody/archive/refs/tags/21.1.1.2.zip
• For R2020b: https://github.com/mathworks/Spatial-Contact-Force-Examples-Simscape-Multibody/archive/refs/tags/20.2.1.1.zip
• For R2020a: https://github.com/mathworks/Spatial-Contact-Force-Examples-Simscape-Multibody/archive/refs/tags/20.1.1.0.zip

Open the project file Spatial_Contact_Force_Examples.prj to get started.

To learn more about contact modeling with Simscape Multibody, please visit:

• Modeling Contact Force Between Two Solids
• Use Contact Proxies to Simulate Contact

Try these free, hands-on tutorials to learn how to use Simscape:

• https://matlabacademy.mathworks.com/details/simscape-onramp/simscape
• https://matlabacademy.mathworks.com/details/multibody-simulation-onramp/ormb

See also:

• Simscape™
• Simscape Battery™
• Simscape Driveline™
• Simscape Electrical™
• Simscape Fluids™
• Simscape Multibody™

This submission uses the S^2 Sampling Toolbox Anton Semechko (2022). Suite of functions to perform uniform sampling of a sphere (https://github.com/AntonSemechko/S2-Sampling-Toolbox), GitHub. Retrieved March 24, 2022.