[ODE] Bike Balancing!

[Martijn Buijs]

James Steele wrote:
> I'm back to writing motor-bike physics again and scratching my head over 
> the best way to get the bike to balance. So I'm wondering if any of you 
> fine people on the ode lists have an idea on how to approach this?
> 
> I've used an amotor joint previously to balance the bike, but this 
> caused some weird issues with the tire model I had written. Also, the 
> motor of course only rotated the body around its COM causing the wheels 
> to slide back and forth lateraly. when what i want is the bike to pivot 
> at the contact points of the wheels.
> 
> So can anybody reccomend another method of artificially balancing a bike 
> in ODE?  Is there some sort of joint that I've previously overlooked 
> that will to the job?  I have a feeling that none of the joints are 
> suited to this task, and will have to apply a "push" force above the COM 
> but I'm, scratching my head with this concept also. 
> 
> So are there any suggestions? Any books/articles I should perhaps take a 
> look at?

Benoit Chaperot, who also wrote the Terrain & Cone contribution, used ODE in his motor cross game:

http://www.jstarlab.com/

He might give you some tips.

Cheers,

Martijn