Six-DoF Haptic Rendering of Contact Between Geometrically Complex Reduced Deformable Models

Area of Science:

• Computer Graphics
• Haptics
• Computational Geometry

Background:

• Real-time evaluation of distributed contact forces is crucial for 6-DoF force-feedback rendering.
• Geometrically complex objects pose challenges for accurate contact resolution at high temporal rates.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a spatially and temporally adaptive method for approximating distributed contact forces under hard real-time constraints.
• To enable stable haptic rendering of complex rigid and deformable objects.

Main Methods:

• A CPU-based approach using a point-based representation and a signed-distance field for contact modeling.
• Point-sampling offset surfaces of complex geometry using particle repulsion for stable haptic interactions.
• Multi-resolution nested pointshell construction for level-of-detail contact force computation.
• Parametrically deformed distance fields for contact between reduced deformable objects.

Main Results:

• Continuous contact forces and torques enabling stable rendering of stiff penalty-based distributed contacts.
• Demonstrated stable haptic interactions with complex 3D objects.
• Achieved real-time kilohertz rates for 6-DoF haptic rendering of distributed contacts.

Conclusions:

• The proposed method effectively approximates distributed contact forces for real-time 6-DoF haptic rendering.
• Stable and high-fidelity haptic interactions with complex rigid and deformable objects are achievable.
• The adaptive, multi-resolution approach offers graceful degradation for close-proximity scenarios.