A Framework for Collision Detection and Response

Detecting collisions and calculating physically correct collision responses play an important role when simulating the dynamics of colliding rigid bodies. Virtual reality applications such as virtual assembly planning and ergonomy studies can especially profit from advances in these directions, because they enable an interactive and intuitive manipulation of objects in virtual environments. This paper presents new algorithms for the real-time simulation of multi-body systems with unilateral contacts. The algorithms for dynamic collision detection and for the calculation of contact forces are part of the software library SiLVIA, a simulation library for virtual reality applications.