Ackermann

When I created Little Crane 2½ years ago, I naively thought that when a car turns left, both front wheels will turn in at the same angle. This is not the case in real cars, as this would cause scrubbing of the tyre. Instead, the inner wheel in steered in more than the outer wheel.

When creating my next games, A Blocky Kind of Love and Buggy Bang! Bang! I knew better, so implemented proper Ackermann steering. Today I ported this code back into the Little Crane code base, so the next version will feature a smoother ride. I also implemented a drive differential, so that the outer rear wheel is driven to spin faster than the inner rear wheel in turns.

It was invented in 1816 by Georg Lankensperger, whose agent was Rudolf Ackermann. This Rudolf Ackermann is not to be confused by Prof. Dr. Ir. Akkermans.