Creating a dynamic hinge joint between two rigid bodies

[DFerrari13]

Hi everyone,

I’m working on a project where I need to simulate a dynamic hinge joint between two rigid bone OBJ meshes (humerus and ulna). Basically an elbow.
The goal is to allow rotation around a single axis (Z) while keeping the other degrees of freedom constrained.

Eventually, this setup should be controlled from Unity using the SOFA plugin, so that I can move the bones interactively (e.g., using AR or hand tracking).

1. What is the best way to define a hinge joint between two OBJ` objects in SOFA?
2. How can I constrain the motion so that only one rotational axis is free?

Thanks a lot for your help!
Best regards,
Davide

[hugtalbot]

Hi @DFerrari13

I would advise to take a look at the RigidBodyDynamics plugin. @olivier-roussel developed it for robotics applications but it could be suited for bone articulation too.

I would advise the example JointActuator.py which relies on a URDF file of a simple robotic arm model

Let us know if it helps

[github-actions[bot]]

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@DFerrari13
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