Small insect size hexapod sinks into the ground

[alexdupond]

Hi fellow V-REP users

I'm new to V-REP and i have created a insect size hexapod in V-REP. The total length of the robot is 90 mm and the legs are made form cylindic shapes with a diameter of 3 mm. (So the robot is very small)

My problem is that when the robot is standing on the ground it is slowly sinking into the ground and when it reaches some depth (2-4 mm) it get's "pushed back" by the floor and the cycle continues. This means that when the robot is not doing anything it jumps up and down.

Maybe it is a question of changing some kind of resolution of the floor, or maybe V-REP is not made for such small object. Or maybe it depends on the physics engine?

I'm using V-REP education version and NEWTON engine.

Best regards
Alexander

[coppelia]

Hello Alexander,

yes, small dimensions are problematic for the physics engines, mostly. The vortex and Newton engine behave a bit better than the others is that respect.
Make sure to read the design considerations on this page.

Try with different engines and select the one that performs best. You can also adjust various properties on a shape- or material-level, or on a global level. ODE and Bullet have there a property Internal scaling and Full scaling that could be useful in your situation: internally, all dimensions/masses/etc. are scaled-up for internal representation, and scaled-down for visualization.

Cheers

[alexdupond]

Hello

Thank for your reply, it was most helpfull. I will try to look more into this.

Best regards
Alexander