Arachnid Simulation: Scaling Arbitrary Surfaces

Abstract

There has been little research done into the realistic simulation of creatures with the ability to crawl across arbitrary surfaces, clamber up walls and walk across ceilings. Realistic simulation of such feats would be of benefit to fields such as arthropod phobia therapy, the animation of computer game characters and Artificial Life research. We have implemented a system that can produce real-time simulation of a spider traversing across an arbitrary surface. The simulation uses a combination of a behavioral system, an orientation system, a procedural gait generator and an inverse kinematics solver to produce the real-time dynamic animation.