Generation of point-contact state space between strictly curved objects

Abstract

Isolated point contacts are most common between two curved objects that do not have line segment on their surfaces. This paper addresses how to represent concisely and generate automatically graphs of topological contact states made of isolated contact points between such curved objects. Information of contact states is useful for a wide range of applications, from robotic tasks involving compliant motion to virtual prototyping, haptic rendering, and dynamic simulation. The approach has been implemented with an effective algorithm.