Motors

In Phobos, motors and corresponding controllers are stored in two separate phobostypes and objects. This may be considered as too complicated for some usecases since most engines like ODE, BulletPhysics or RBDL take direct influence on a certain joint. However, to enable custom motor or controller models, e.g. by Functional Mockup Units, both types have been implemented.

Adding a Motor

Motors are added to Phobos joints, so you need to select a well-defined joint. Use the Add motor operator in the Hardware tab:

This will open a motor selection menu. The categories and motor types are based on the parsed definitions from your definition folder. You may add several motors of the same type to all selected joints, by selecting the Add to all option. The Add controller option will also add the default controller for this motor type.

Depending on the motor you selected, another settings menu will open. It contains the parameters of this motor type. This might look like:

After confirming this dialog, a motor object (and maybe a controller) will be added to the joint(s).

Adding a Controller

Adding a controller follows the same steps like adding a motor. The only difference is, that you need to select a motor object to add the controller to.

Adding a Motor / Controller definition

Phobos aims to be extendable. Custom definitions can be extended by simply adding an entry to ~/phobos/config/defaultMotors.yml, where all motor definitions are stored.

A similar approach can be taken to add or edit current controller models within ~/phobos/config/defaultControllers.yml.

For further details see the custom definition section of this wiki.