[Robotics] Origami-folding robot

[Andy Mills]

Hello,

I've decided to use Blender to model a robot/machine idea I have, mostly
because it already has the physics engine built in and the soft-body objects
look promising.

At this point, I have a model of what I envision the robot to be like (some
things are likely to change). However, I have some quetions:

- It's not that important right now, but as it stands, the robot is purely
static objects, so no collsion. I notice that if I apply physics to just one
part, that part tends to fly away. Is it possible to build an armature
that's connected to a "static body" but the armature controls a rigid body
object? Will I have to create the whole thing as rigid body? (There are some
pieces that are stationary that I imagine could be static.
*Note, I don't think it's so necessary to have this answered by any of you.
I have a feeling I can find a tutorial or relevant info to this, but any
help would be appreciated.

- Do any of you have experience attempting to simulate paper, and manipulate
it? Do you think the soft bodies will be satisfactory? I'm really wondering
if the soft bodies can "keep a fold", like if you were to take a piece of
paper, fold it in half, then set it on a table with the fold up, like ^
whether it would maintain that fold, but slowly lose it.
I think I might end up being alone on this one...

- Another one I don't necessarily NEED help on, but any insight might help.
The game seems to play just fine from Blender, but when I try to export a
binary, it seems as if the camera is facing away from the "scene." I haven't
tried to set up controls for the camera, yet, but I'm hoping that doing so
will allow me to maneuver/focus the camera on the scene (although I feel
like it should be oriented as set up in the scene/3D view. (I'm not sure if
the camera is facing away or if the objects aren't being drawn). Have any of
you experienced this?

- As it stands, I'm not currently using any sensors. At a minimum, I'm
expecting to use some IR sensors to ensure the paper's alignment, but I'm
hoping I won't need very sophisticated sensor systems. I've been looking at
Pyro and Sirbot to satisfy sensor simulation. What are you using?

I'm willing to share the .blend file with you to get a better idea of what
I'm talking about. Currently, the robot is controllably only manually via
keyboard.

Thanks in advance. I hope not to be bothersome. If my project offers an
opportunity, I hope to be able to contribute to the robotics project.

I'm striving to "complete" a thorough simulation within the next six months.

Regards,

Andy Mills
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