Special functionality

A list of special functions of the Stonefish library is gathered below. It includes tools, which can be useful in the analysis of the behaviour of simulated systems, not representing real world devices.

Contacts

The contact recording function enables capturing the history of contact points between two selected bodies (dynamic or static). The recorded contact points can optionally be displayed in the visualisation window, using one of the selected representations: path, slip (velocity) or force. Moreover, the visualisation is defined separately for each of the bodies.

An example of using a contact recording feature is presented below:

<contact name="Contact1">
    <bodyA name="Body1" display="path"/>
    <bodyB name="Body2"/>
    <history points="1000"/>
</contact>

#include <Stonefish/sensors/Contact.h>
sf::SolidEntity* body1 = ...;
sf::StaticEntity* body2 = ...;
sf::Contact* cnt = new sf::Contact("Contact1", body1, body2, 1000);
cnt->setDisplayMask(CONTACT_DISPLAY_PATH_A);
AddContact(cnt);

Soft collision

Collisions of all bodies defined in the simulation scenario are considered rigid by default. Sometimes it is important to improve the stability of the collision response, e.g., in case of high impacts, or introduce softness, which can simulate linearly deformable materials. This can be achieved by extending the definition of a selected dynamic body as follows:

<dynamic>
    <!-- all standard definitions -->
    <contact stiffness="1000.0" damping="0.5"/>
</dynamic>

sf::SolidEntity* solid = ...;
solid->SetContactProperties(true, 1000.0, 0.5);