Using pseudo voxel octree to accelerate collision between cutting tool and deformable objects modeled as linked voxels

Abstract

For deformable objects modeled as a uniform grid of voxels connected by links, an octree for the voxels is constructed. Cutting is performed by disconnecting links swept by the cutting tool and reconstructing cut surface mesh using the dual contour method. The cubes of the voxel octree are not directly used because their edges generally do not remain straight when the objects deform. Instead, the voxel octree is used to mark active voxels and links and is therefore called “pseudo.” Voxels and links located in the interiors of voxel octree cubes are deactivated. For collision between the cutting tool and the deformable objects, only active voxels and links are considered. Then, voxel octree cubes with newly cut links on their boundaries are recursively subdivided, and new voxels and links are activated accordingly. These algorithms are implemented with multi-threading techniques. Simulation tests show that when compared to previous methods using a uniform grid of voxels, our voxel octree method can increase cutting tool collision speed by 11–96% and can increase overall simulation speed by 7–43%.