[ODE] Simulating a semi truck.......

[Ed Jones]

I have the tractor and trailer modelled as single bodies, but with a 
couple of geoms for collision, in the case of the tractor, that's one 
for the cab and one for the bit where the trailer attaches, plus the 
wheels on each part can't collide with that part.
There's a picture here;
http://members.dodo.com.au/~ed-jones/semi_truck.jpg
That hopefully explains that a bit better.

I dunno about using a hinge joint, I know most of the 'bend' in the 
truck / trailer connection (fifth-wheel?) is so the truck can go around 
corners, but it also needs to be able to go over the brow of hills and 
through dips in the road. As well as bump one of the trailer wheels over 
the curb whilst the tractor stays flat on the road, which will need a 
bit of twist. In my model the collisions between the tractor and trailer 
stop the joint going too far, which I imagine is much the case with 
proper trucks. Although admittedly I've never actually driven one!

Hope that's useful, I'm interested to see what other ideas anyone else has.

Cheers,
Ed.

P.S. Whatever you do, don't look at the index page of that URL I've 
given above, but if you must, please see here;
http://www.remakes.org/website/competition/reviews.php?id=57
For an explaination (of sorts).


Sandeep KL wrote:

> Hi!
>
> Thanks a lot for the suggestions!
> However, the main difficulty arises with the collision handler.......
> Should i turn off collisions among sub-objects of the truck? Would 
> this make it unrelistic?
> How do i set rotational limits for the trailer joint? I guess its 
> better to use a hinge joint....is it?
>
> Thanks again!
> Cheers,
> San
>
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