Simplified and Abstracted Geometry for Forward Dynamics
Geometric simplification has played an important role in the
computer graphics field by allowing believable viewing of scenes
too complex for timely computation. However, the approaches used
in computer graphics for geometric simplification have as their
goal the realistic portrayal of a scene to a viewer, not the
similarity between the simplified or abstracted system and the
physical ground truth. In rigid-body simulations of robots and
complex mechanisms, geometry plays a key role in determining
where the contact points, and thus collision joints, occur.
Different simplification methods will lead to different
simulated results, possibly too inaccurate for the required
technical purpose. However, the model does not need to look like
the original, as in computer graphics. If a robot's legs can be
abstracted as a pair of ovals or rotating meshes that hit
contact points appropriately, this might be acceptabel for a
physical simulation. Wheras, it would be