Hydraulic Arm For Robotic Arm

[mythprod]

I'm looking for a decent way to make my hydraulic piece of my robotic arm to expand and contract depending on the arm's mootion (see attached). I know I could rig a skeleton to my robotic arm and use an iK handle to move it, but I'm not sure how to make the two separate metal pieces expand and contract inside of each other. I guess I'll need some sort of constraint on the attached parts of the hydraulic bar(s) so they stay attached to each side of the arm but if they're parented they'll simply stay as if glued (instead of bolted) and move with the arm, breaking the relationship they have with the other hydraulic piece, if that makes any sense.

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated!

[gmask]

place the pivot point of the two cylinders at their ends.. then place a locator at each of those points. Parent the locators and the cylinders to their respective joints. Then use aim constraints so that each cylinder points at the opposing locator.

[fxnurbs]

I didn't see a mel script in the download area doing that ?

Davveys Piston Generator 1.1.0

I don't know if it do the rig or it just a modeling tool, it good to check it

cheers