Framsticks

This document describes how to get realistic stress data (axial and angular) for various 3D constructs simulated in Mechastick.

The stress for each stick should be visualized using Hue in the HSV color space – you have to develop your own (external) program that loads this kind of data and displays colored "sticks". Stress values are from zero to (theoretically) infinity.

1. Download Framsticks GUI for Windows
2. Run Framsticks.exe
3. Load some genotypes from other.gen
4. Double click "Creatures" and turn off (uncheck) Death
5. Run the simulation and stop it after a while
6. Click the x= button on the toolbar (shows all parameters) or press ^P
7. Go to "User scripts"
8. Click "Dump creatures", this will produce a simple file with all the data you need as well as explanatory comments. Ignore velocity data (vx, vy, vz). Note that x and y axes constitute the horizontal plane, while z is vertical.
9. Find the minimal and maximal stress value and map them linearly to blue and violet (or you can use a fixed scale of 0→blue, then green, yellow, red, >=1→violet). You could also increase color intensity non-linearly to have colors=(violet..white) for stress=(1..∞).
10. Once you get the visualization (of axial stress) working, play with complex constructs: throw balls against each other, test the tower, use the manipulator arm (controlled by mouse) to exert forces...


11. Ensure that your program reads and displays multiple objects, not just one object.
12. Modify your program to periodically read the dump.txt file (e.g. twice a second). Select the "Dump creatures" experiment definition and while the simulation is running, you will get a real-time visualization of stress! (Since the file is written periodically, you need to detect read errors and just retry when a read error/exception occurs. Or open the file in exclusive non-sharing read, or simply read-write mode). See similar applications at [1], [2].


13. You can get additional, interesting shapes by clicking the "Make regular shapes" button.
14. You can also build your own construct – use the simple f9 genetic format, or the more general f0 genetic format.
15. Looking for additional information? check out the tutorial.
16. When you click the "Dump creatures" button, the scripts/dumpCreatures.script is executed – you might want to see or modify this script.

Sample output for the picture above:

# parts are points, joints are sticks.
# format for parts: x y z vx vy vz
# format for joints: part1index(0-based)  part2index(0-based)  stress_axial  stress_angular

# creature_number  number_of_parts  number_of_joints
0 29 33
14.4143 14.435 -0.138187 -5.1985e-05 8.34782e-05 -0.000636402
14.4169 18.4341 -0.0582172 -8.25894e-06 3.72263e-05 -0.00013441
18.4078 14.4393 -0.210557 -0.000122876 0.000145061 -0.00107781
18.4128 18.4376 -0.124602 -6.23939e-05 6.93761e-05 -0.00056526
15.3718 13.2737 6.33448 0.00744798 -0.00871094 -0.0107484
15.4011 17.2277 6.84619 0.00795648 -0.00983025 -0.00765233
19.3649 13.2932 5.78699 0.00740841 -0.00844168 -0.0133515
19.3979 17.2428 6.41529 0.00789498 -0.00971733 -0.00998127
14.4156 16.4332 -0.0358506 -6.10617e-06 1.04206e-05 -0.000120125
16.415 14.4341 -0.0648753 -1.65135e-05 3.33471e-05 -0.000275007
16.4156 18.4341 -0.0419375 -8.55237e-06 1.66962e-05 -0.000136064
18.415 16.4338 -0.0558095 -1.16942e-05 1.66761e-05 -0.00026329
15.3863 15.2553 6.53531 0.00769961 -0.00922401 -0.00946258
17.362 13.2887 5.99149 0.00733345 -0.00844047 -0.0124542
17.3935 17.2415 6.5595 0.00785048 -0.00977565 -0.00935136
19.3798 15.2739 6.04101 0.00767202 -0.00903313 -0.0117253
14.4901 14.2693 1.40279 0.000308349 -0.000372693 -0.00289149
14.5252 18.2259 1.58706 0.000760551 -0.00154549 -0.00209835
18.5906 14.2855 1.19936 0.000975171 6.69901e-05 -0.00363501
18.6082 18.2529 1.42358 0.00118862 -0.00144586 -0.00286882
14.7122 13.9728 2.98728 0.00206972 -0.0023922 -0.00550843
14.763 17.9286 3.27964 0.0027442 -0.00410616 -0.00422485
18.8327 13.998 2.65798 0.00287241 -0.00171198 -0.006685
18.8602 17.9641 3.02175 0.00316446 -0.00406054 -0.00543778
15.0275 13.6177 4.6233 0.00472243 -0.00550814 -0.00832845
15.0742 17.5838 5.02731 0.00537621 -0.00707961 -0.00621745
19.0997 13.6439 4.18005 0.0051852 -0.00495993 -0.010118
19.1328 17.6128 4.68067 0.00554851 -0.00704445 -0.00795271
20.0019 12.6394 6.55637 0.00825227 -0.00942396 -0.0150288
0 16 0.447544 0.234671
16 20 0.376841 0.128238
20 24 0.303127 0.0346921
24 4 0.226601 0.0875737
1 17 0.338272 0.185496
17 21 0.26865 0.100395
21 25 0.196961 0.0175557
25 5 0.123466 0.0480752
2 18 0.568433 0.168835
18 22 0.495041 0.0784793
22 26 0.416615 0.0118648
26 6 0.334349 0.072432
3 19 0.427785 0.136934
19 23 0.357321 0.0696878
23 27 0.283787 0.0209832
27 7 0.207372 0.041949
0 8 0.072943 0.0763444
8 1 0.125645 0.123072
0 9 0.157013 0.0722712
9 2 0.00730989 0.0828311
1 10 0.118215 0.0279462
10 3 0.044911 0.0964441
2 11 0.0342176 0.107282
11 3 0.153595 0.132892
4 12 0.0789368 0.0430878
12 5 0.00729465 0.0430802
4 13 0.0335861 0.0674322
13 6 0.0570924 0.0407638
5 14 0.0155945 0.0713579
14 7 0.0716268 0.0494689
6 15 0.065483 0.0465453
15 7 0.0190317 0.0217011
28 6 0.0434372 0.0340015

Sample visual output: