How to implement a continuously expanding target ?

Hello Antoine, The short answer is that yes, this is all possible. To do this, you will need to manipulate VCodes, the data output from a Show Target block that tells Dexterit-E what you want displayed on the screen. Section 10.7 of the Task Programming Guide has all of the detail on VCodes. To make the VCode grow and shrink I would suggest:

• Create a base VCode using a Show Target block.
• Pass the VCode to an embedded MATLAB function
• In your TP table create a column that is a "growth factor"
• In Stateflow, create a new output variable that is the Size Change
  • Reset the size change to 0 at the start of a trial
  • When you need the size to change create a State block and use a "during" clause
  • In the during clause put something like Size change = Size change + growth factor
  • Anything in the during clause is executed at 1 kHz.
• Send the Size change variable to the embedded MATLAB block
  • Assuming a rectangle, update the size using:
  • VCode(10) = VCode(10) + size change % width
  • VCode(11) = VCode(11) + size change % height

In terms of the HandInTarget, I think you could handle it within the same embedded MATLAB block. While it is possible to manipulate the existing HandInTarget, doing your own calculation is likely easier. 

• Get the current hand position from the KINdata_bus block and pass into the above embedded MATLAB
• HandX = HandX - VCode (3) % X position of the target
• HandY = HandY - VCode(4) % Y position of the target
• handInTarget = abs(HandX) < VCode(10) && abs(HandY) < VCode(10)
• The above code checks if the hand is within rectangle's bounds
• When sending the handInTarget variable back to Stateflow it is likely you will need a Memory block to avoid circularity

Assuming your task is meant to run on either hand, a convenient way to get the hand position from the correct robot is:

• Use the Bus Selector to pull out (in order) a2_hand_position, active_arm, a1_hand_position
• Pass those 3 inputs in order into a Switch block
• Set the switch condition to ">1"

The above technique will pass the arm 2 position (left arm) when the active arm is 2, otherwise the arm 1 (right arm) position is passed. Please let me know if I can help any further. Duncan

Hi Antoine, Please send your model to support@kinarm.com and I'll look into the build error. In answer to your other questions:

• Yes, I'd just use one embedded MATLAB block to grow the target and for the HandInTarget code
• Goto and From is a great way to declutter a model - so yes, great idea!
• As long as the only target you care about looking at is the growing target then yes you could replace the input. 
• The unit delay block will work perfectly. I don't know why there is also a memory block, it's just the one I'm in the habit of using.

All the best, Duncan

Hello Duncan,   Thanks for the detailed answer! It helped me a lot.
I have implemented the first part that consisted in changing the VCODES with growth factor and I obtained an error that says that the slx could not be built because "The make command returned an error of 2". I verified the simulation parameters of Simulink and everything was fine there and I only obtained this error (that happens after checking all syntaxic erros and variable missmatch) in this task. Do you have any guess of what might be the fix for that?   I also had a few questions regarding the second part (the one about the HandInTarget function).

• Shall I use the same embedded function as the one I used for the ShowTarget block?
• Would you recommend to use GoTo and From operations from Simulink to communicate variables from HandInTarget to ShowTarget?
• Can I just replace the entry of the HandInTarget classical output by the boolean expression you gave me?
• Is the memory block that I need to avoid circularity similar to a unit delay used to avoid algebraic loop?

Best regards, Antoine