Real‐time Rigid Body Simulation for Haptic Interactions Based on Contact Volume of Polygonal Objects

Abstract

Abstract This paper proposes a new method for real‐time rigid body simulations for haptic interactions based on a penalty method regarding contact volume. Analytical methods for calculation of contact forces require too much time to maintain fast update rates for haptic controls. In addition, they prohibit direct connection of haptic interfaces. Penalty methods, which employ spring‐damper models for calculation of contact forces, offer a very rapid rate of iterations. In addition, they permit direct connection of haptic interfaces. Penalty methods are good for haptic interactions. However, previous penalty methods do not regard distribution of contact forces over the contact area. For that reason, they can't calculate normal and friction forces on face‐face contacts correctly. We propose a distributed spring‐damper model on a contact area to solve these problems. We analyze three‐dimensional geometries of the intersecting portion on the polyhedral objects. Then, we integrate forces and torques of distributed spring‐damper models. We implement a proposed simulator and compare it with a point‐based penalty method and constraint method. The comparison shows that the proposed simulator improves accuracy of the simulation of face‐face contact and friction forces and the simulation speed. In addition, we attach a six degree‐of‐freedom (6‐DOF) haptic interface to the simulator. Users can feel 6‐DOF force feedback and input 6‐DOF motions. Categories and Subject Descriptors (according to ACM CCS): I.6.5 [Model Development]: Modeling methodologies, H.5.2 [User Interfaces]: Haptic I/O, I.3.6 [Methodology and Techniques]: Interaction techniques