Fighting Robots

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Years ago I was checking out Melbotwars.com - it seemed very cool but I think we could much better!

I've been playing around with Node, Dynamics and constraint based fighting robots - very simple stuff to start off with since I'm not much on mel scripting - check out this early test
Smart Gunner vs Dumb Gunner

This example shows a little machine gun type rig with limited bullets - two dynamic balls bounce around an arena shooting at each other. Dumb Gunner just points at the enemy and fires, typically missing due to gravity and motion. smart gunner leads the motion of the enemy and has more success, plus aims higher when the enemy is farther away.

I think the melbot or fighting Maya Robot is a very cool project and I'll be posting more bits and pieces as I go. I hope If you have so projects of a simlar kind you'll post them here too and maybe we can make our own cool fighting maya bots!

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DYNAMIC WAGON RIG - Query

I'm not all that familiar with dynamic constraints, but I think they are just what I need to build my little dynamic wagon.

Please see the attached image, is there anyone who knows how to build this little wagon rig? I'm trying to attach a wheel - that is an active rigid body - to an axle or axis - which points at a goal - and in turn have both of these guys attached to the wagons platform.

any help or thoughts would be appreciated!

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DYNAMIC WAGON RIG

I've gotten so far as to understand that it can all be set up with hinge constraints, but the constraints are so shaky it makes me wonder if its set up right at all , anyways check out the video to see the progress.

The pilot voyage of the crapmobile

The rear wheels drive the car forward with Spin inpulse Z The front wheels are connected to the steering column, which in turn has a connection to its own spin y impulse driven by a locators aim constraint.

Im realizing though that the spin impulse on the wheels only works when the car is pointed in that one direction, when it turns sideways the wheel impulse tries to flip it over on its side - is this a rotation order problem or did I miss a trick here?

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I'm realizing now that a steering mechanism thats driven by an objects rotate impulse wont work - rotate impulse is based on world rotation axis and thats just not good enough for a cart that turns in every direction.

Please correct me if I am wrong

I'm finding now that the way to get these carts moving nicely is to bind with springs - this example shows a cart thats put together with hinge constraints, then two springs added onto the front axle. The stiffness of the springs is attached to a setrange node which gets information from the rotate channel of the axle. - Simply put, when the axle is turning left, the right spring tightens and the left spring loosens, so it allways tries to compensate and correct itself.

This setup can be improved upon by adding a steering variable - so that the wheels steer towards a goal and also try to stay straight.

See video

I'm thinking that springy suspension is important too, I'll try it out on the next test.