ZodiusInfuser

Not as awesome, but I too have had similar enjoyment from mecanum wheels. We had 3 Kuka Youbots delivered to the research lab I work at over a month ago and I pretty much spent all morning driving one around. They're what inspired me to start modelling such wheels for the IR Rework , as I have a rough idea of how lo-fi's code could handle them (or approximate them at least) Ha! Yea they do a bit

I have been considering a landing foot of some sort and/or a KAS grappling hook based on Darrens recent videos. I have yet to come up with a design that I like, and more importantly have no idea how to go about actually creating a landing leg. I would quite like it to unfold. Alignment to a surface would be ok if it was toggleable.

You forgot to share a video on this, it's far more awesome than you made out And here's the academic paper: http://web.mit.edu/mobility/publications/IROS08_1351_MS.pdf Edit: This came up as a related video:

It could well be an issue with the collision geometry of the grabber. if so then pretty much all the other robotic parts will have the same issue, and anything else with concave collision meshes. Let me know if that turns out to be true.

That is true about the centroid being anywhere. I was saying its on a line perpendicular to the direction vector because that simplifies the calculations involved in deriving its position based on velocity and turn rate: Of course, the vector can be in any direction to enable combinations of forward motion and crabbing. If the turn rate is at zero degrees then the calculations naturally go off to infinity as you noted. Inversely, with no velocity the centroid would be at the CoM or a user defined location, with wheel speed being directly related to turn rate. Here's what I posted to lo-fi at the time. Ah, I misunderstood your use of D1 and D2 then. I still thing you would need to recalculate the values though, whenever the user input (and therefore the centroid) changes, or if the wheels are moved due to some robotic assembly. Depending on the specific use case the calculations can be done once or every frame. It seems the best way to avoid this is just to allow wheels further away from the centroid than the CoM (or other designated point) to run faster than the normally would. That being said, if you're having to iterate for the steering limit stuff you might as well do this at the same time. Anyway, that's enough about it from me for tonight. Lo-fi has heard this all from me before in various forms

Yea, I thought about making my wheels use the stock module, just to get them out there but I can't do it, knowing a much better system is possible. My understanding of the problem is that the centroid is always along a line out from the center of the craft that is perpendicular to the direction of travel, with it's distance being related to the amount of turning wanted. With that you'd limit the distance between center and centroid to that determined by the cone intersection. The issue is, one wheel may be at an odd angle or have limited range, so you need to find the maximum distance each of these independent cone calculations return before you can actually place the final centroid. Time to dig out my images (lo-fi's seen it before ) In the above you can see that the wheels to the right cannot turn to face the centroid, so it needs to be positioned to align with their cones. This means you need to know the worst case cone, by iterating through all the wheels. I'd love it if there was a solution that avoided that, but I can't think of one at the moment. Doesn't that mean the inside wheel needs to know D2, which is a parameter of the outer wheel? Yes it could iterate though and find it, but I fear the performance impact if every wheel did that independent of each other. Also bare in mind that the centroid position would be dynamic, so you can't cache the value of D2 in case the user inputs change. Also I'm coming at this from the perspective of Infernal Robotics, which would allow for the wheel positions to dynamically change too.Edit: I'm sure we will . It would be great if there was just one module for wheels that combined all this functionality. Not sure how tracks fit into the mix though, maybe treated like omni wheels.

I too came to this conclusion. The rotation centroid can be calculated based on the user inputs, be it forward/backward and turn, or full 2D motion inputs. I wrote a whole document with figures and sent it to lo-fi some time ago . Was actually derived from my more complex Hexapod walking system I did for a personal project. Having all wheels calculate together does allow for some extra abilities though, mainly normalising the vehicles speed based on the furthest wheel, or limiting how close the rotation centroid is allowed to be based on wheel turn limits. Normalisation can be avoided by assuming wheels on the arc that intersects the CoM run at 100% speed, those inside run slower and those outside run faster. It is certainly a needed feature for vehicles such as this to work correctly (which is my goal and the reason I've been in contact with lo-fi). And don't get me started on how this can be applied to omni/mecanum wheels

The ones covered by this MM config: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/65365-WIP-MSI-s-Infernal-Robotics-Model-Rework-(Updated-27-08)-now-with-FOLDATRONS!!?p=1378922&viewfull=1#post1378922 Note that applying the config won't actually remove the parts so instead you'll need to manually identify which ones it refers to and delete their folders.

Maybe cap the speed you rotate the model at so it's no more than 180 degrees per update (or 90 if you have two spirals etc)?

After seeing the updated cockpit and tank versions posted by Maxmaps, I was wondering if you'd be maintaining the SP+ mod once the new parts are in the game? There are notable differences between the two sets, meaning some people may prefer the originals over the Squadified ones. I particularly like the asymmetric profile and heatshield textures of the mod over what's been shown so far.

Yes!!! The athlete parts aka foldatrons are available in the OP.

Thanks. Gantries will be coming in the future, once I come up with a cool enough design for them. Any reference material is welcome . They will be the last parts in my planned Probe styling, with Station and Aircraft to follow (not necessarily in that order). -------------------------------------------------- Btw, is anyone up for creating some example craft with the IR Model Rework parts for me to post pictures of in the OP? Although the current pictures are accurate in showing what's offered, they don't really highlight all the cool things that are possible with them. It would be preferred if it was just Stock+Rework+ActiveStruts, but if other mods are needed then that's fine too . I have my own ideas I'll try and come up with too

They've been in IR for ages. Still none in the IR model rework.

Wow! That's one impressive mech suit you've got there. Glad to see the new parts in use!

I imagined the mechanism more like the Sword from Pacific Rim but without all the complex animation

Thank you muchly Is this what you're after? http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/84566-WIP-Magic-Smoke-Industries-Station-Parts-(Infernal-Robotics-required) Not quite surface attached, since there's no way to ensure the tank size is exactly right, but allows for an in-line rotating ring as you describe.

Does this mean I can start playing around with my mecanum wheel concept, or is extra control still needed for omni-directional movement?

As Master Tao said, I've done the models but need to have a plugin to support them. I could just use the stock wheel module, but that won't allow for the things I've designed these wheels to achieve (e.g crabbing etc). There are still a number of parts that don't have rework equiverlants yet (mainly gantries and adjustable rails). So I wouldn't recommend removing all the parts, but a fair chunk of them can be retired. Certainly the old telescopic piston, since the new stackable extendatron is virtually identical. Maybe someone can create a MM config that removes the old parts from the game? The folder structure and naming of the parts in the Robotics and Structural downloads will not be changed, but the athlete parts and utilities are still in flux as they're still new. Currently the parts are not balanced for career mode. This is something I plan to do at some stage, but could do with suggestions from people as to good nodes and values to use.

Honestly, I'm not sure what I'm doing next. I'd quite like to have a break from the modding side of things and actually do a propper playthrough with mine and several other mods. I would like to get the VTOL parts out, but as I did them before the current lineup of parts, there's a fair bit of modification I'd like to do to get the styling in-line with the rest of the pack. I have considered it, maybe if people can present a need for one I'll push it up my ever growing to-do.

Because matrices and quaternions are a lot easier for computers to manage and avoid singularities. Just means you have to do Euler calculations now and then, which aren't so nice.

So, I hear there's these things called Foldatrons people have been keen to get their hands on? In that case you may want to check out the OP Highlights: Includes 13 robotics parts under the new Foldatron range, giving a lot more options when things need to be folded! Also adds 6 untextured structural components matching the foldatron profile. In addition, I've updated the original Robotics download to make it work with IR 0.18, added a new Pivotron that has a lower profile than the others, and fixed the folder structure for the Grabber. As always, please offer you feedback on the new parts. They are very specialised (hence the separate download), so I'd welcome it if people could show off what they've able to come up with. The selection of parts offered is largely down to the feedback from the testers who helped me, so thank you to them Enjoy!!!

Soon (the light is in the OP already )

Any ETA on the video lo-fi? From what I watched it didn't seem like that much editing would be required.

You can angle the uncontrollable hinge, meaning rocket-bogie suspension systems will be a lot easier to create!

\o/ Yay!!!