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Angle Sensor

Ideal angle sensor with measuring range from 0 to 360 degrees


Pumps and Motors


The Angle Sensor block represents an ideal angle sensor with measuring range from 0 to 360 degrees. To measure an angular displacement, the sensor must be connected to a mechanical rotational port. No load is imposed on the measured object. The sensor output is kept within the range from 0 to 2π radians (360 degrees) regardless of the number of revolutions performed by the object and the direction of rotation. The sensor is ideal because it does not account for inertia, friction, and so on.

The difference between the Angle Sensor block and the Ideal Rotational Motion Sensor block, available in the Simscape™ Foundation library, is demonstrated in the following figure.

In this example, the object is moving at 6 rad/s in the positive direction for the first 5 seconds, and then switches to the negative direction at the same speed. The Ideal Rotational Motion Sensor block output (line 1) shows that the object turned forward by 30 rad and then turned back in the negative direction, continuing until –20 rad. The reading of the Angle Sensor block (line 2) stays in the range from 0 to 2π rad.

Availability of the Angle Sensor block considerably simplifies development of models with complex relationship between model parameters and rotation angle, such as pumps and motors.

Basic Assumptions and Limitations

  • The sensor is assumed to be ideal. No load is imposed on the object.

  • No inertial effects are considered.

Dialog Box and Parameters

Phase angle

This parameter lets you account for angular shift between the object and the sensor input. The default value is 0.


The block has the following ports:


Mechanical rotational conserving port associated with the probe of the sensor.


Physical signal port that outputs the angular displacement of the object.


The Hydraulic Axial-Piston Pump with Load-Sensing and Pressure-Limiting Control example models a test rig designed to investigate interaction between an axial-piston pump and a typical control unit, simultaneously performing the load-sensing and pressure-limiting functions. To assure required accuracy, the model of the pump must account for such features as interaction between pistons, swash plate, and porting plate, which makes it necessary to build a detailed pump model.

The Angle Sensor block is used in each of the piston model subsystems (Piston_1, ..., Piston_5), where it provides the angular position of the respective piston as input to the Porting Plate Variable Orifice blocks.

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