Modeling Complex Contacts Involving Deformable Objects for Haptic and Graphic Rendering

Haptic rendering involving deformable objects has seen many applications, from surgical simulation and training, to virtual prototyping, to teleoperation, etc. High quality rendering demands both physical fidelity and real-time performance, which are often conflicting requirements. In this paper, we simulate contact force between a held rigid body and an elastic object and the corresponding shape deformation of the elastic object efficiently and realistically based on a nonlinear physical model and a novel beam-skeleton model, taking into account friction, compliant motion, and multiple contact regions. Our approach is able to achieve a combined update rate of over 1 kHz in realistic, smooth, and stable rendering, as demonstrated by our implemented examples.