[ODE] Steering and rolling wheels

[Sergio Casas Yrurzum]

Hi Nate. Thanks.

> > My robot consists of the robot itself and three wheels, one front
> > free-rotation wheel and two rear wheels that are (both) steering and
rolling
> > wheels at the same time.
> >
> > The front wheel is joined to the robot with a BallAndSocket Joint, and
works
> > fine.
>
> Actually, I'd wager that the ball joint does not work fine, and is in fact
> the source of the problems you described.
>
> If you're using a ball joint, the wheel is free to rotate on ANY axis.
> For that to work, the wheel would need to be spherical.  A flat-sided
> wheel will rotate onto its side when you try to steer.  A cap-cyl wheel
> might work OK, but it will probably bobble up and down as you steer.

I forgot to mention that the front "wheel" is a sphere, so I'm afraid that's
not the problem.

> Instead of the ball joint, try a hinge-2 joint.  Or two hinges with an
> intermediate body - one hinge providing steering movement, the other hinge
> allowing the wheel to rotate.  Two hinges is conceptually easy to
> understand, but the hinge-2 joint does basically the same thing with less
> computation.
>

I tried it with no results, so it seems that I am missing some joint
parameters or something.

Anyway, thanks for replying me. If you have any other idea, I will
appreciate it.