Real-time rigid body simulation based on volumetric penalty method

Abstract

This paper proposes a new method for real-time rigid body simulations based on a volumetric penalty method. The penalty method, which employs a spring-damper model, is a simple and useful method for real-time simulation of multi-bodies. However the simple penalty method cannot handle face-face contact, because the simple penalty method cannot find the application point of the reflection force. We propose a distributed small spring-damper model to solve the problem. We analyze the intersecting part of bodies and integrate forces and torques from distributed spring-damper models. We implement the simulator and compare our simulator with the simple penalty method. It shows that our simulator solves the face-face contact problem. In addition, we attach a haptic interface to the simulator for interaction. It shows that we are able to interact with a virtual world by haptic interfaces.