Non-penetrating rigid body simulation

Abstract

This paper surveys recent work on dynamic simulation of rigid bodies with non-interpenetration constraints. The problems of collision detection and contact force determination are discussed, along with both frictionless and frictional collision and contact. For the collision-detection problem, methods which deal with objects’ motion as a single continuous function of time are compared and contrasted to discretization methods. For the problem of determining interaction forces between contacting objects, both penalty and constraint-based methods are considered.