Simulating an oscillating revoluteJoint in Android

In this post I simulate an oscillating revoluteJoint in Android using Box2D physics engine & AndEngine. While I was attempting this in the context of something larger I found this fairly challenging so I decided to write a separate post on this.  Creating a revoluteJoint was rather trivial.  This was done as follows

Initially I created a static point to act as pivot.  I then used a rectangular shape joined at the pivot. I wanted this to oscillate about the pivot. So the pivot & the rectangular shape were created as follows
circle = new Sprite(100, 320, this.mBallTextureRegion, this.getVertexBufferObjectManager());

circleBody = PhysicsFactory.createCircleBody(this.mPhysicsWorld, circle, BodyType.StaticBody, FIXTURE_DEF);

this.mScene.attachChild(circle);

// Create leg

leg = new Sprite(110, 325, this.mLegTextureRegion, this.getVertexBufferObjectManager());

legBody = PhysicsFactory.createBoxBody(this.mPhysicsWorld, leg, BodyType.DynamicBody, gameFixtureDef);

this.mPhysicsWorld.registerPhysicsConnector(new PhysicsConnector(leg, legBody, true, true));

this.mScene.attachChild(leg);

Then I created a revoluteJoint between the leg and the circleBody as follows

final RevoluteJointDef rJointDef = new RevoluteJointDef();

rJointDef.initialize(legBody, circleBody, circleBody.getWorldCenter());

rJointDef.enableMotor = true;

rJointDef.enableLimit = true;

rJoint = (RevoluteJoint) this.mPhysicsWorld.createJoint(rJointDef);

rJoint.setMotorSpeed(2);

rJoint.setMaxMotorTorque(100);

rJoint.setLimits((float)(30 * (Math.PI)/180), (float)(270 * (Math.PI)/180));

The revoluteJoint has a lower limit of 30 degrees and an upper limit of 270 degrees.

To make it oscillate I created a Timer task which I fire every second. Every time the timer fires I reverse the motor speed as follows

class IntervalTimer {

Timer timer;

public IntervalTimer(int seconds, RevoluteJoint rj) {

Log.d("Inside","in");

timer = new Timer(); //At this line a new Thread will be created

timer.scheduleAtFixedRate(new RemindTask(rj), seconds*1000, 1000);

}

class RemindTask extends TimerTask {

RevoluteJoint rj1;;

RemindTask(RevoluteJoint rj){

rj1 = rj;

}

@Override

publicvoid run() {

Log.d("x","x" +"Reversing motor");

reverseMotor();

}

publicvoid reverseMotor(){

rj1.setMotorSpeed(-(rj1.getMotorSpeed()));

rj1.setMaxMotorTorque(100);

Log.d("aa","speed:"+rj1.getMotorSpeed() + "torque:" + rj1.getMotorTorque());

}

}

}

I then instantiate the timer

new IntervalTimer(5,rJoint);

I now have an oscillating revoluteJoint which can be used in any number of ways.

The video clip is at “Simulating an oscillating revoluteJoint in Android”

You can clone the project from GitHub at “oscillatingRevoluteJoint”

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