[ODE] Balancing a Vehicle

[Nate W]

On Mon, 13 Oct 2003, Julian Spillane  wrote:

> I've recently encountered a problem with my 
> simulation that I had supposed was inevitable. 
> I'm currently simulating a vehicle with rear-
> wheel drive interacting with a trimesh (so it has 
> sphere-wheels), but, when it reaches high speeds 
> and attempts to turn, it tends to flip simply 
> because its wheels are spherical. Does anyone 
> have any ideas of what I could do to dampen the 
> flipping? 

My guess is that your car is flipping because the wheel-terrain friction
is too high.  If you turn it down, the car will slide rather than flip.  
I've got a sphere-wheeled vehicle cruising around on a trimesh terrain, it
works fine.

-- 

Nate Waddoups
Redmond WA USA
http://www.natew.com/