VBD Formulation for Impulse-Based Collisions

Develop a method to handle impulse-based collisions within the Vertex Block Descent (VBD) framework, integrating an impulse-based collision model in the sense of Mirtich (1996) into VBD's optimization-based time stepping.

Background

The paper’s collision handling within VBD is based on a penetration potential, i.e., penalty forces. This choice does not enforce penetration-free behavior and contrasts with impulse-based approaches commonly used in rigid body dynamics.

In the context of extending VBD to rigid bodies, the authors explicitly defer the question of incorporating impulse-based collisions to future work, identifying it as an unresolved direction for integrating a different collision paradigm into the VBD solver.

References

Note that since our collision formulation is based on penetration potential, it corresponds to penalty forces. We leave the exploration of handling impulse-based collisions [Mirtich 1996] with VBD to future work.

— Vertex Block Descent (2403.06321 - Chen et al., 10 Mar 2024) in Section 6.2 (Rigid Body Simulation), page 14