I am new to Houdini so my novice may be showing with this post…

Using a vopforce, how can you extract information from two different bodies that need to be compared to each other? I can see that you are able to give it more than one input, but once inside, How do you access each of the input objects?

I am trying to create a tentacle with a chain of rigid bodies. These bodies are attached to each other with pin constraints serving as joints between each link. To control the tentacle I am trying to set up a force based targeting system to calculate torques between consecutive bodies. The goal of the system is to minimize the difference between a joints predetermined target angle and its current angle. This difference will define an axis of rotation to apply the torque, finally the torque would be applied back onto the connected body.

So, this is what I'm trying to accomplish. The problem is I still can't figure out which nodes will best serve my purpose.

In the attached initial pass I have a procedurally created chain and can distributed pin constraints between them. I am able to apply torque with the uniform force, but this does me no good if I can't control it…

-Seth

The blend solver may be worth looking into. It will let you weight the sim towards a keyframed animation. Also, the rbd state dop will let you override or add to angular velocity.

That file you posted crashes on load I'm afraid!