[WIP] MSI's Infernal Robotics - Model Rework (v02 Pre-Release Beta)

[J.Random]

Which struts, usual or active ones? Former: merge it all together. Active struts should be a separate download, as they depend on another plugin.

[AntiMatter001]

That sir, is a turret from a homeworld2 hiigaran destroyer

i know! >.< i had 5 minutes before i gave up with the whole design and when i finished it couldn't and still can't move at all because of the feet

[ZodiusInfuser]

Athlete+Struts+Utility choice is totally nice to my taste.

Which struts, usual or active ones? Former: merge it all together. Active struts should be a separate download, as they depend on another plugin.

Thanks for the feedback. I've decided to go with 2 packs for my future releases:

• The Core Pack - Contains the reworks basic robotic parts and accompanying structural elements, offering new possibilities without much bloat. This will hopefully be the pack that becomes part of the main IR release.
  
• The Extension Pack - Contains the rest of the rework parts (athlete parts, struts, utilities and wheels). This expands the possibilities of robotics in KSP, but has a fair few dependencies. Currently these are ActiveStruts, TweakableEverything, KAS and in the future Kerbal Foundries and Firespitter (probably).
  

Does this make sense to everyone?

[Camacha]

Intuitively I would have said basic and Athlete parts in one, the rest in another, but this makes more sense from a what goes with what point of view. I just lumped all the active parts together, and the passive bits together with the special and odd components, but that might not be the most sensible approach.

So yeah, seems fine to me. I never downloaded the struts and wheels, but I would not mind at all if that got chucked in the mix.

[Unknow0059]

What about the in development parts? Are you still making them? I'm looking forward for the ATHLETE rover parts.

[ZodiusInfuser]

What about the in development parts? Are you still making them? I'm looking forward for the ATHLETE rover parts.

Look back a few pages and you'll see that I am working on stuff. As for athlete parts they've been out for a long while, unless you mean the wheels in which case they will be looked at soon .

[CaptainKipard]

Thanks for the feedback. I've decided to go with 2 packs for my future releases:

• The Core Pack - Contains the reworks basic robotic parts and accompanying structural elements, offering new possibilities without much bloat. This will hopefully be the pack that becomes part of the main IR release.
  
• The Extension Pack - Contains the rest of the rework parts (athlete parts, struts, utilities and wheels). This expands the possibilities of robotics in KSP, but has a fair few dependencies. Currently these are ActiveStruts, TweakableEverything, KAS and in the future Kerbal Foundries and Firespitter (probably).
  

Does this make sense to everyone?

Sounds good.

[ZodiusInfuser]

Jeb seems to be in awe...

For those who can't remember back to last summer, this was a part I started after seeing Darren9's awesome mech videos (

). Its using the KAS grappling hook module and the design is inspired by the Rock Climbing robot from JPL (

). One question though, what to call it? I did initially thing grappler, but that is already used by my ActiveStrut part.

[RainDreamer]

Well, time to make creepy spider bots.

[AccidentalDisassembly]

Maybe something with "grip"? The Grip-o-tron 9000? Etc.

[AntiMatter001]

Jeb seems to be in awe...

https://www.cubbyusercontent.com/pl/IR%20SurfaceClaw%20InGame.png/_dab171493e534c089ae79ed327c1b848

For those who can't remember back to last summer, this was a part I started after seeing Darren9's awesome mech videos (

). Its using the KAS grappling hook module and the design is inspired by the Rock Climbing robot from JPL (

). One question though, what to call it? I did initially thing grappler, but that is already used by my ActiveStrut part.

awww damnit everytime you make something cool i keep looking for the DL link

can we have the DL link for that? pleeeeeaaaaasssseeeeeeee~~~~

[Kerbas_ad_astra]

Maybe something related to gecko, lemur (the JPL rock-climbing robot is called LEMUR)...

[Camacha]

Geckomatic.

Edit:

Maybe something related to gecko, lemur (the JPL rock-climbing robot is called LEMUR)...

Had not seen this, great minds think alike

Edited January 17, 2015 by Camacha

[AntiMatter001]

uhm might i sugest a 1 to 3/2 adapter for the robot parts? i'm trying to make a claw (i know there's one there but... MEH) and i found the two pincers hard to construct.

[Darren9]

The Grapple-Feet look great. Have you got close to setting the attach force yet? It's nice to have it low if you're in low/no gravity with just a bit of RCS to push you onto a surface - just a suggestion

@ AntiMatter001, I'm not sure what sort of claw you're making, I found P-Wing quite good, with two upper and one lower in-between it's quite reliable.

[CaptainKipard]

The Stick-waller. It sticks to walls. I'll leave now.

[ZodiusInfuser]

The Grapple-Feet look great. Have you got close to setting the attach force yet? It's nice to have it low if you're in low/no gravity with just a bit of RCS to push you onto a surface - just a suggestion

Yep, I dug out your old PM on the matter and copied the values across.

awww damnit everytime you make something cool i keep looking for the DL link

can we have the DL link for that? pleeeeeaaaaasssseeeeeeee~~~~

Sorry, the part wasn't ready for beta release yesterday, as I wanted to add an animation to it (but that didn't quite work out): https://www.cubbyusercontent.com/pli/IR_MechanicalGrasper_Beta.zip/_8ab725eca78e4da699330ab4db22b145

I wanted to get the "fingers" to perform a deploy animation when the part got in contact with the surface. Since KAS doesn't natively support this, I tried to get around it using a wheel collider. This worked (and looked awesome!) but didn't play nice with KAS, as it kept triggering the OnCollision method before the rigid body of the part contacted the ground. It also caused the right click menu to have all the wheel tweakables, which wasn't ideal.

What I'd like is for KAS to support animation triggering on attach and detach. Looking at the license though, I'm not too sure if such a modification would be allowed. For now I'll put the part out there for people to play with, whilst I continue to figure ways around the problem.

[ZodiusInfuser]

On an unrelated point of discussion, discovered this video today:

This may mean that my old mecanum wheel models are actually viable \o/

Edit: With thanks to lo-fi. I should disclaim that this is very early WIP (hence having to use rotatrons to drive them), but I felt it was too awesome not to show:

Edited January 19, 2015 by ZodiusInfuser

[Horus]

I do not think there's a real practical use for those... but THEY ARE FREAKING AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!

[Camacha]

I do not think there's a real practical use for those... but THEY ARE FREAKING AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!

I think those things are very useful, especially since the usual drawbacks do not apply in KSP. Even on Munar surfaces they should work well. Nifty-licious!

[ZodiusInfuser]

I do not think there's a real practical use for those...

Beyond being awesome, they're probably not that useful for a standard KSP playthrough, but for those where you're doing a bit of roleplay then most certainly . I'll refer you to these awesome videos from Kuka Robotics (and others).

The current model may be a bit large though if this is the kind of stuff I have in mind for it.

[RainDreamer]

I am interested in them, pratical uses or not. They will look kickass on a sci-fi looking rover equipped with lots of robotic parts.

[ZodiusInfuser]

I am interested in them, pratical uses or not. They will look kickass on a sci-fi looking rover equipped with lots of robotic parts.

Thanks . I'm doing a redesign of the current version to make it more heavy duty, as well as making a smaller size. Here's what I've got so far (not sure which size it will be).

I'm also working on the rest of the wheel parts, since lo-fi's youtube video reminded me how to do them. There will be four versions in the end, all with a top mounting point and the option for future plugins to give them 360 degree steering. I could go for fewer versions and just use tweakscale, but I'm not sure how they'll behave, plus there's a lot of cool reference material that I'd like to cover

Edited January 20, 2015 by ZodiusInfuser

[*Aqua*]

I still have that bug in the editor where rotating parts don't stop exactly at their upper/lower limit. Sometimes they rotate to -1 or something else instead of 0. When I open up the position editor it shows 0.

Is that a bug of this parts mod or of infernal robotics?

[RainDreamer]

I still have that bug in the editor where rotating parts don't stop exactly at their upper/lower limit. Sometimes they rotate to -1 or something else instead of 0. When I open up the position editor it shows 0.

Is that a bug of this parts mod or of infernal robotics?

I have that with the stock infernal robotics parts sometimes too. But that seems to happen only in editor, out in the field they works, most of the time. Tweakscale might screw things up sometimes.