SensorNode

A sensor attached to a node, which measures one of the output variables of the node.

Parameters

The parameters of the item; in a dictionary, its type is ‘Node’:

name	type	size	default	description
name	String		‘’	sensor’s unique name
nodeNumber	NodeIndex		invalid (-1)	node number to which sensor is attached to
writeToFile	Bool		True	True: write sensor output to file; flag is ignored (interpreted as False), if fileName=’’
fileName	String		‘’	directory and file name for sensor file output; empty: no file is written; a relative name is placed in exudyn.config.outputDirectory if that is set; the directory is created if it does not exist
outputVariableType	OutputVariableType		OutputVariableType::_None	OutputVariableType for sensor
storeInternal	Bool		False	true: store sensor data in memory (faster, but may consume large amounts of memory); false: internal storage not available
visualization	VSensorNode			parameters for visualization of item

Visualization parameters

The parameters of VSensorNode, given as visualization:

name	type	size	default	description
show	Bool		True	set true, if item is shown in visualization and false if it is not shown

Drawing

Drawn as all sensors.

Detailed description

Attached to

The node nodeNumber: every node, with ODE2, ODE1 or other coordinates.

Measures

outputVariableType is one of the output variables of the node, as its page lists them under Output variables - Position, Velocity, Coordinates, and for a rigid body node also RotationMatrix, AngularVelocity and the like. The frame is the one the node page gives for the variable.

Mini example

#the position of a node, stored during the simulation
node = mbs.AddNode(NodePoint(referenceCoordinates=[0,0,0], initialVelocities=[1,0,0]))
mbs.AddObject(ObjectMassPoint(nodeNumber=node, mass=1))
sNode = mbs.AddSensor(SensorNode(nodeNumber=node, outputVariableType=exu.OutputVariableType.Position,
                                 storeInternal=True, writeToFile=False))

mbs.Assemble()
mbs.SolveDynamic()

#rows [t, x, y, z]; the last row at t=1
data = mbs.GetSensorStoredData(sNode)
exu.sys['testResult'] = data[-1,0] + data[-1,1] #1+1

Examples (Ex) and TestModels (TM) that show this item, with weblink to github: plotSensorExamples.py (Ex), sensorUserFunctionTest.py (TM), springDamperUserFunctionTest.py (TM), rigidBodyCOMtest.py (TM), plotSensorTest.py (TM)