Interactive Haptic Simulation for Engineering Design

Principal Investigator: Ming Lin
Funding Agency: National Science Foundation
Agency Number: DMI-9900157

Abstract
The synergy of force feedback and computer image generation enables the users to interact more intuitively with complex three-dimensional geometric models. This grant provides funding to investigate interactive physically-based geometric algorithms for real-time haptic simulation, namely interactive force display with efficient contact determination. The specific research issues to be investigated include: (1) design of new algorithms for real-time collision detection between complex geometric models; (2) computation of penetration depth at interactive rates for calculating contact or restoring forces; (3) improved computational efficiency of contact determination algorithms for flexible models undergoing deformation; (4) integration of all the algorithmic advances gained from the proposed research and demonstration of a proof-of-concept demonstration using haptic simulation; (5) verification of their utility in other design and engineering applications; (6) rapid dissemination of the research results by releasing public domain software packages based on the prototype software implementations and by transferring the technology to commercial vendors.

The goal of this research is to improve the performance of underlying contact determination algorithms for force display by at least an order of magnitude, in order to sustain interactive haptic simulations and to enable natural manipulation of 3D CAD models. Successful completion of the proposed research can have considerable impact in promoting haptic simulation as a new interaction paradigm for three-dimensional engineering design. Other than haptic simulation for engineering design, these algorithms will also be useful for tolerance analysis and maintainability studies in virtual prototyping and design automation.