[ODE] Actuators

[Brian Bell]

Ivan,

I use something like this in my current project (foosball) to keep the dudes
on the field pointing straight up and down, while still allowing them to
react a little when the ball hits them.

I used a PID controller to generate the torques necessary to maintain my
target value (actually, in this case, it's just a PD controller).  You could
certainly use a controller like this to enforce the relative position you're
looking for, and there's a lot of literature on the net about PID
controllers.  It's just a matter of tweaking the gains to your framerate and
simulation to achieve a nice smooth response, within your parameters (ie,
how much overshoot is allowed, settling time, etc).

Good luck!
Brian

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Ivan Tanev" <i_tanev@atr.co.jp>
To: "ODE mailing list" <ode@q12.org>
Sent: Thursday, June 26, 2003 8:30 PM
Subject: [ODE] Actuators


> Dear all,
>
> I have a very limited experience with ODE and would like to ask you to
> suggest me the way of implementing "actuators" in the joins (e.g. ball
> joins). I would like to keep the relative position between two bodies as
> constant as possible. This relative position can be temporarily disturbed
by
> forces applied to either of the both bodies. However, when no external
> forces applied, the position between the two bodies to be restored to the
> originally predefined "resting" position.
>
> Should I use Ball Joints combined with Angular Motors, or is there other
way
> to do this.
>
> Thank you very much.
>
> Ivan
>
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