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From: vrenios@enuxsa.eas.asu.edu (Alexander Vrenios)
Subject: Re: Make a BattleMech Stand Up!
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Date: Fri, 14 Oct 1994 16:12:00 GMT
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Xref: glinda.oz.cs.cmu.edu comp.ai.genetic:4027 comp.ai.alife:1140 comp.ai.neural-nets:19486

Greg,

   1. When your robot falls, concentrate on the method of
      getting it on its back; then let it "spring" to its
      feet - after all, these are combat types. I believe
      this is easier than the problem of getting UP from
      some random position, and it is believable.

   2. A few years back I saw an animation of a creature with
      a worm-like neck, and the movement was realistic. The
      explanation was that the neck was modeled as a stack
      of rings, each with a magnetic charge on it, and the
      central "wire" also had a known magnetic charge that
      kept the rings centered around it. When movement of
      the wire was scheduled by the animator, a calculation
      of the effect on each ring was used to get the position
      of each displayed part on the neck. That is, the neck
      was displayed, but the wire+rings construct was merely
      an intermediate processing step.

      I bring this up because the body of the robot (as I am
      seeing it) can be considered a charged shell around the
      stick-man of the robot. The stick man moves, causing the
      shell to proceed forward. But the shell, having a charge
      of its own, will be forced backward (toward the stick-
      structure) when it is hit by a simulated blast. That is
      enough to affect the stick-structure, too, but not to as
      great an extent as the blast would have. This gives it a
      cushioning effect that might give you the visual appear-
      ance of the robot recoiling from the hit.

   Hope this helps you.


