Quasi-Rigid Objects

in Contact

Mark Pauly Dinesh Pai Leo Guibas

Stanford University Rutgers University Stanford University
 Contacts in Simulation

• Bio-medical applications:
• surgery simulation
• artifical joints, dental implants
• Mechanical design:
• wear and tear of industrial parts
• Physics-based animation:
• movies
• games

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 Existing Models

• Rigid body dynamics

• small number of state variables
• efficient collision detection
• contact sensitivity problem (a stool with hundreds
of legs)
• Fully deformable (e.g. FEM, mass-spring)
• accurate modeling of complex materials
(elasticity, plasticity)
• too costly for models that hardly deform

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 Quasi-Rigid Objects

• Physical model
• point force applied to object only leads to small,
local deformation
• analytical system response model to define
displacements due to point force
• linear elasticity: Global system response by
superposition
• forces and displacements evaluated on surface
only

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 Quasi-Rigid Objects

• Surface model
• point cloud representation for modeling
consistent, highly dynamic contact surface

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 Physical Model

• Boussinesq approximation
• infinite elastic half-space

Poisson’s ratio force at x

1   p( x )
u( x, y) 
2G x  y
displacement at y
due to force at x
shear modulus

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 Physical Model

• Boussinesq approximation
• system response function

1  1
f (r ) 
2G r

r  xy

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 Physical Model

• Linear elasticity
• superposition

1   p( x )
u( y)  
2G S x  y
dx

total displacement at y

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 Volume Preservation

• Condition:

 f (r )rdr  0
0

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 Volume Preservation

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 Discretization

• Approximate system response at discrete

nodes (point samples)
shape function
N
p( x )   p j  j ( x )
j 1

displacement force at node j

at node i
1   j (x)
ui 
2G j
 pj 
x  qi
dx
S

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 Discretization

system response matrix

u  Rp vector of
vector of tractions
displacements [p1,...,pN]T
[u1,...,uN]T

1   j (x)
Rij  
2G S qi  x
dx

matrix coefficient

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 Contact

• Collision detection
• static bounding volume hierarchies (small
deformations)
• Contact resolution
• compute forces and displacements that resolve
contact
• Contact surface
• find contact surface that is consistent for both
models

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 Contact Resolution

• Collision detection determines points that

potentially experience displacements (active
nodes)
active nodes

corresponding nodes

• find corresponding point for each active

node

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 Contact Resolution

• Separation of active nodes

• initial separation

s~i   qi  qi
A B

• final separation
si  ui  ui  qi  qi
A B A B

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 Contact Resolution

• Condition for contact resolution:

• non-negative separation: si ≥ 0

• non-negative force: pi ≥ 0

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 Contact Resolution

• Linear Complementarity Problem (LCP)

s  Rp  q
s0
p0
sT p  0

• solved using Lemke’s method

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 Contact Surface

• Consistent conforming contact surface

• Adaptive moving least squares (MLS)
approximation requires no re-meshing or
zippering

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 Simulation

• Treat objects as rigid while in free motion

• Integrate contact forces to compute total
wrench

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 Example

• Model acquisition
• laser-range scan
• Hierarchy construction
• recursive clustering
• efficient multi-level computation

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 Example

• Simulation

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 Example

• Validation

Measurement Simulation
X2 FootSensor (xSensor Corp.)
37 x 13 sensors, 1.94 sensors/cm2

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 Bio-medical Applications

• Simulate friction effects to predict attrition

 design of artificial joints

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 Computer Animation

• Quasi-rigid body simulation

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 Computer Animation

• Explicit representation of contact surface

allows accurate simulation of friction effects

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 Computer Animation

• Explicit representation of contact surface

allows accurate simulation of friction effects

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 Conclusion

• Quasi-rigid objects bridge the gap between

rigid bodies and fully deformable models
• Simple and efficient model for contact
resolution
• Limitations:
• small deformations
• linear elasticity
• sharp corners

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 Future Work

• Coupling with low-resolution FEM model

• Acquired system response functions
• Incorporate friction into LCP
• Application: Contact simulation in knee joint

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 Acknowledgements

• NSF grants CARGO-0138456, ITR-0205671,

IIS-0308157, EIA-0215887, ARO grant
DAAD19-03-1-0331
• Anonymous reviewers

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