Contact Simulation

Abstract

This chapter discusses numerous topics related to simulating multi-rigid bodies undergoing contact, including rigid and pseudo-rigid models of contact, complementarity problems, the Coulomb friction model, rigid body impacts, coordinate selection for rigid bodies and multibodies, integrating the equations of motion, constructing Jacobian matrices for unilateral and bilateral constraints and time-stepping and event-driven simulation methods, and determining contact data from geometric representations of rigid bodies. The material is approached starting from foundational models and moves toward practical implementation. The chapter concludes with further reading, which includes both current research directions and open problems.