Simulating Collisions within the Modelica MultiBody Library

In this paper an approach for handling collision within the Modelica MultiBody library is presented. Therefore, a short overview about collision consideration for multibody simulation is given. Different methods for calculating the contact reactions are discussed and their potentials for implementation in a free Modelica library are deliberated. Furthermore the implementation of this collision library, using a penalty-based collision approach and the Bullet Physics Library for collision detection is described. The application is demonstrated in examples and limitations are brought up. Although some drawbacks restrict usability, the library can be used to increase the level of detail for multibody simulation models.