Contact and deformation modeling for interactive environments has seen many applications, from surgical simulation and training, to virtual prototyping, to teleoperation, etc., where both visual feedback and haptic feedback are needed. High quality feedback demands high level of physical realism as well as high update rate in rendering, which are often conflicting requirements. In this paper, we present a unique approach to modeling force and deformation between a rigid body and an elastic object under complex contacts, which achieves a good compromise of reasonable physical realism and real-time update rate (at least 1kHz). We simulate contact forces based on a nonlinear physical model. We further introduce a novel approximation of material deformation suitable for interactive environments based on applying Bernoulli-Euler bending beam theory to the simulation of elastic shape deformation. Our approach is able to simulate the contact forces exerted upon the rigid body (that can be virtually held by a user via a haptic device) not only when it forms one or more than one contact with the elastic object but also when it moves compliantly on the surface of the elastic object, taking into account friction. Our approach is also able to simulate the global and local shape deformation of the elastic object due to contact. All the simulations can be performed in a combined update rate of over 1 kHz, which we demonstrate in several examples.
Bio Sketch
Dr. Jing Xiao
is a Professor of Computer Science, University of North Carolina
-Charlotte. Prof. Xiao currently also serves as the Program Director of
the Information Technology Ph.D. Program. Her research interests
cover robotics, haptics, computational geometry, and intelligent
systems in general, and she has published extensively in those
areas. Prof. Xiao received her B.S. degree from Beijing Normal
University, and her M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Computer, Information,
and Control Engineering from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor,
Michigan, USA. After she received her Ph.D. degree in 1990, she has
been with the University of North Carolina - Charlotte. From October
to December 1997, she was a visiting researcher at the Scientific
Research Laboratories of the Ford Motor Company, and from January to
June 1998, she was a Visiting Associate Professor at the Robotics
Lab. of Computer Science Department, Stanford University. From
August 1998 to December 2000, She was the Program Director of the
Robotics and Human Augmentation Program at the National Science
Foundation. Dr. Xiao is a Senior Member of IEEE. From 1999-2001, she
was an elected member of the Administrative Committee of the IEEE
Robotics and Automation Society for a term of three years. She is
currently on the Membership Board of the IEEE Robotics and Automation
Society and serves as the Associate Vice President for Member
Activities. Prof. Xiao has been active in program committees of major
robotics conferences for many years and has served in various roles
including General Chair (ISATP 2005), Program Co-Chair (IROS 2004,
ISATP 2001, 2003, 2007), Area Chair (RSS 2006, 2007), as well as a
number of committee chairs. She is on the editorial board of Advanced
Robotics and Journal of Intelligent and Robotic Systems.