Dynamic Net Creations

Away 3D Robotic Arm

I’ve added effector orientation to the Away3D version of the Inverse Kinematics class and have created a demo that uses it. When playing with the demo please keep in mind the following:

If you are not specifying the solver account for orientation then there will always be a solution provided you have enough degrees of freedom and the target is within reach.

It becomes more difficult if you specify the solver to account for orientation. The solution set in this case shrinks dramatically and as such can take a long time to find a solution. In some cases there is not a solution but the solver will keep trying and you will get some wonky behavior.

Now that that’s out of the way. You can see the demo here:

http://dynamicnetcreations.com/experiments/awayarm/

I’ll commit the source to the IK branch of the Away3D project soon.

Skip the rest of this post if you aren’t a math nerd.

I had a hard time figuring out how to handle effector orientation. The information I could google was very good but none of the sources I found online had all the information I needed. So, I had to break out my calculus book and pull bits and pieces from those online sources I mentioned. I thought it would be nice to compile all of my notes into a single document and I have included it below.

IK Theory Explanation

Tags: 3D, effector, Inverse Kinematics, orientation

2.5D Ragdoll

 

Since Halloween is coming up I thought I would incorporate a scary skeleton into my latest inverse kinematics demo. Special thanks to Trevor Burton for the model. I used the WOW Physics Engine and PV3D in conjunction with a numeric, multi-dimensional, non-linear, inverse kinematics solver I’m developing in my spare time to produce this demo. I’m calling it a 2.5D ragdoll instead of a full 3D ragdoll demo because after talking to the creator of the WOW physics engine I learned that I can’t create a full 3D ragdoll simulation until WOW implements certain features. I’m still happy enough with the result to release the demo however.

In case you are interested in IK, here are some links I used to get started with it:

http://billbaxter.com/courses/290/html/index.htm

http://math.ucsd.edu/~sbuss/ResearchWeb/ikmethods/index.html

Tags: 3D, Flash, Inverse Kinematics, Papervision, WOW Physics