Rolling Rigid Objects

Abstract

Simulating the dynamics of rigid bodies plays plays an important role in virtual reality applicationssuch as virtual assembly planning an ergonomy studies but also in the field of computer animation. In order to decrease the complexity of the objects with curved surfaces directly instead of apprioximating them by polyhedra. One important aspect of the dynamic bahavior of objects with curved surfaces is the rolling process. In this paper we develop the dynamics equations that describe the rolling motion of arbitrarily shaped rigid objects that are in a one- or two-point contact with an arbitrary surface. as a method to keep track of pairs of closest points we use techniques form differential geometry