Modeling Dynamical Systems

Detailed Description

Drake uses a Simulink-inspired description of dynamical systems.

Includes basic building blocks (adders, integrators, delays, etc), physics models of mechanical systems, and a growing list of sensors, actuators, controllers, planners, estimators.

All dynamical systems derive from the drake::systems::System base class, and must explicitly declare all drake::systems::State, drake::systems::Parameters, and noise/disturbances inputs. The drake::systems::Diagram class permits modeling complex systems from libraries of parts.

For an introduction to using systems in python, see the dynamical_systems tutorial. For a "Hello, World!" example of writing a dynamical system in C++, see simple_continuous_time_system.cc and/or simple_discrete_time_system.cc.

Modules
	System Events
	This page describes how Drake Systems can respond (through an Event) to changes ("triggers") in time, state, and inputs.
	Primitives
	General-purpose Systems such as Gain, Multiplexer, Integrator, and LinearSystem.
	Controllers
	Implementations of controllers that operate as Systems in a block diagram.
	Estimators
	Implementations of estimators that operate as Systems in a block diagram.
	Sensors
	Drake provides a variety of capabilities for sensor modeling.
	Manipulation
	Systems implementations and related functions that specifically support dexterous manipulation capabilities in robotics.
	Message Passing
	Systems for publishing/subscribing to popular message passing ecosystems.
	Multibody Systems
	Systems that relate to, or add functionality to, MultibodyPlant.
	Perception
	Systems for dealing with perception data and/or wrapping basic perception algorithms.
	Discrete Systems
	This page describes discrete systems modeled by difference equations (contrast to continuous systems modeled by ordinary differential equations) as well as considerations for implementing these systems in Drake.
	Stochastic Systems
	This page describes the implementation details of modeling a stochastic system in Drake and writing algorithms that explicitly leverage the stochastic modeling framework.
	Visualization
	Systems for connecting to external visualization tools/GUIs.
	Examples
	The examples contain a number of useful System implementations.

Classes
class	SceneGraph< T >
	SceneGraph serves as the nexus for all geometry (and geometry-based operations) in a Diagram. More...
class	MultibodyPlant< T >
	MultibodyPlant is a Drake system framework representation (see systems::System) for the model of a physical system consisting of a collection of interconnected bodies. More...