Hi MV,

Thanks for the reply. You're very welcome.

The Dynamic examples were more to show their limitations, as you mentioned those that you like to explore dynamics. I will not hold anyone back, as I always live under the impression that there must be a way when I get questions.

If I have any limitations (even with six degrees – three of them are engineering degrees from German Universities, not meant as bragging, just to put some light on my background), I do not want to share any limitations as a stop. I would be happy to see that solved. However, I also want to point out where the limitations are, or at least where I see them.

In one file (above), I placed little squares to showcase that it gets quickly unstable. Of course, the iterations could be set much higher, but I do not have the computing power here to experience that rewarding experience.

Since the head alone needs all axes of freedom to be positioned in any way (P.X, P.Y, P.Z, R.H., R.B, R.P), it creates a lot of stress on the "locked" axis down to the base of solved with dynamics. Which is similar to the problem with IK. I stick for now with my recommendation to invest the time in a good rig that allows for an easy adjustment with sliders or other HUD elements, meaning manual animation. The example I have shown with IK gets you there to a certain degree even.

My current idea is to reduce the complexity first, thinking of two spheres. One is centered around the base, and its radius is based on the second one. The second one gets its primary position from the first one while having the position freedom of the radius (the main IK arms of the robot)
Its orientation is based on a target that can be placed where the "head" needs to be. Similar to BB-8, but with a diameter-changing body.

BB-8.jpg

All the best