[ODE] Basic Questions.

[Marco Grubert]

> I need to create a wheeled mobile robot. Can anyone suggest what kind of
joint should be used for the steering and rear wheels.

I would recommend hinges for the rear wheels and hinge-2 for the steering
wheel. However, different users have had varying levels of success with
building a car. Do a search in the list archive for some hacks and patches
to improve hinge behavior.

> ODE supports the creation of basic shaped bodies such as
box,cylinder,sphere. How can I create more complex bodies, such as a box
with holes in its bottom for the wheels to pass through. How can I join
these simple bodies.

More complex bodies can be created by using groups and transforms. However,
for that car example you could just ignore collisions between the frame and
its wheels.

> I also didnot quite understand what is the functionality of the getdata()
and putdata() functions in ODE.

To Store/retrieve user data :) It's up to you what you store in there, or if
you store anything at all. It can be very convenient to use these functions
though.

> I would really appreciate any help on these questions.

Make sure you read the ODE manual- most of these questions are covered
there.

- Marco