[PictoBloxExtension]

Physics Engine

Extension Description

Add physics to simulate the real-life simulation.

Available in: Block Coding
Mode: Stage Mode
WiFi Required: No
Compatible Hardware in Block Coding: evive, Quarky, Arduino Uno, Arduino Mega, Arduino Nano, ESP32, T-Watch, Boffin, micro:bit, TECbits, LEGO EV3, LEGO Boost, LEGO WeDo 2.0, Go DFA, None
Compatible Hardware in Python: Not Applicable
Object Declaration in Python: Not Applicable
Extension Catergory: Other

Introduction

What is Physics Engine?

Physics Engine is a 2D rigid body simulation library for making games and animations. Programmers can use it in their games to make objects move in realistic ways and make the projects more interactive. From the game engine’s point of view, the physics engine is just a system for procedural animation.

Accessing Physics Engine in Block Coding

Following is the process to add Physics Engine capability to the PictoBlox Project.

Open PictoBlox and create a new file.
Select the coding environment as Block Coding.
Next, click on the Add Extension button and add the Physics Engine extension.
You can find the Physics Engine blocks available in the project.

Core Concepts

Physics Engine works with several fundamental concepts and objects. We briefly define these objects here and more details are given later in the block definitions and examples.

Shape: A shape is a 2D geometrical sprite, such as a circle or polygon or the sprite shape.
Rigid body: A chunk of matter that is so strong that the distance between any two bits of matter on the chunk is constant. They are hard like a diamond. In the following discussion, we use body interchangeably with rigid body.
Fixture: A fixture binds a shape to a body and adds material properties such as density, friction, and restitution. A fixture puts a shape into the collision system (broad phase) so that it can collide with other shapes.
Constraint: A constraint is a physical connection that removes degrees of freedom from bodies. A 2D body has 3 degrees of freedom (two translation coordinates and one rotation coordinate). If we take a body and pin it to the wall (like a pendulum) we have constrained the body to the wall. At this point the body can only rotate about the pin, so the constraint has removed 2 degrees of freedom.
Contact constraint: A special constraint designed to prevent penetration of rigid bodies and to simulate friction and restitution. You do not create contact constraints; they are created automatically by Physics Engine.
World: A physics world is a collection of bodies, fixtures, and constraints that interact together. Box2D supports the creation of multiple worlds, but this is usually not necessary or desirable.
Solver: The physics world has a solver that is used to advance time and resolve contact and joint constraints. The Box2D solver is a high-performance iterative solver that operates in order N time, where N is the number of constraints.
Continuous collision: The solver advances bodies in time using discrete time steps.

PictoBlox Blocks

The Block makes a request to ChatGPT with the specified text and stores the response in PictoBlox, which can then be accessed with the Block ‘Get AI Response’. This Block also features three types of AI bots – Normal AI, Sarcastic AI, and Friend AI.

This block enables users to set the digital state of an Arduino digital pin to either a High (5V) or Low (0V) voltage output. It can be used on the Arduino Uno, Mega, and Nano boards.

The block allows the user to set the cursor position in an LCD module. It takes two parameters, the column and row numbers, and moves the cursor to that position. This allows the user to create more precise output for the display.

This block adds the offset on the end effector position along the specified length direction i.e. the direction in which the robotic arm is facing and the Z direction.

This block moves the robot forward and backward for a set time, collecting IR sensor data on both white and black lines.

Starts the script when the sprite is touched by another sprite.

Moves the sprite a specified number of grid squares up.

Makes the sprite disappear as if fully invisible.

Runs the script over and over forever, untill stop by Stop button (🛑).

Play’s a specified sound from the list.

This makes a image copy of the sprite on the stage.

After connection is established, rotates the quarky a specified number of step to the left.

Shows a specified emotion with animation on the quarky LED display.

Detects and counts the number of human faces present in a view captured from the camera.

Allows the sprite to follow the movement of a detected hand in real-time on specified finger.

Runs the blocks inside if a specfied state(active/inactive) of the sensors of the wizbot is detected.

After connection is established, moves the wizbot in a specified direction forever.

The block sets a text color (choose from the color selector), a particular background color (choose from the color selector) and the text size (value varying from 1 to 7) for the text.

evive has a 5-way navigation key, 4 of them are for up, down, right and left direction. This block checks if the navigation key is in one of the four particular directions. The direction for which you wish to check is your choice and can be chosen from the drop down on the block.

The block sends the written message on the terminal module of the Dabble app.

The block reports the digital state of the digital sensor, connected to the selected digital pin.

This block should be included every time you work with the humanoid robot for the first time as it calibrates the angles of all the four servo motors of the leg (2 servos of legs + 2 servos of feet) and saves the angles in the memory of evive.

The block points its sprite in the specified direction; this rotates the sprite.

The block gives its sprite a thought bubble with the specified text. The thought bubble stays until a speech or thought block with its text block empty is activated, or the stop sign is pressed.

The options for the Change () Effect by () block’s drop-down menu are pan left/right and pitch. The input is for selecting how much the sound will be changed. A positive number will make the sound effect have more effect, while a negative number will make it smaller.

The block will check its Boolean condition. If the condition is true, the blocks held inside it will run, and then the script involved will continue. If the condition is false, the code inside the block will be ignored and the script will move on (unlike in the If () Then, Else block). The condition is only checked once; if the condition turns to false while the script inside the block is running, it will keep running until it has finished.

Scripts that wear the block will activate once its sprite or clone of the sprite is clicked. Contrary to its definite name, the block will also execute the clone’s script when the clone is clicked on.

The block reports the Euclidean distance, in pixels, between it and the mouse-pointer or a specified sprite’s costume center.

The block will make an input box (with the specified text above it) show at the bottom of the screen. Scratchers can input text into it and submit it, and the input is stored then in the Answer block. The Answer block automatic updates to the most recent input.