Real-time Collision Detection Engine

Tutorial by Igor Goncharenko, 3D Division, I-Net Corporation

Abstract
The purpose of this tutorial is to introduce the first of two software packages created by the 3D Division of I-Net Corporation to developers and users of haptic interface empowered systems. The first package, SmartCollision SDK is a collision detection engine organized as a C++ class library. The main advantage of the engine is that it can detect collisions and calculate penetration depth (or minimum distance) in real-time, which is critical for many haptic applications. Unlike voxel-based methods, the engine completely relies on polygonal representation of objects in 3D (convex and non-convex polyhedra, arbitrary sets of triangles, lines, points, etc). Multiple contacts and multiple objects can be handled in real-time with the total number of polygons up to several hundred thousand. Advanced penetration depth computing includes calculation of the dynamic and global penetration depth with the rotational component of penetration. These outputs can be used for feedback force/torque calculations. In the tutorial, the basic usage of the SDK will be explained. There are numerous practical applications of the software, for instance, in virtual assembly, physics-based dynamic simulations, medical simulators, robotics, teleoperation, etc. Some of the applications will be demonstrated with a PHANToM haptic display at the end of the tutorial session.

Haptic Communication Toolkit (HCT)

Tutorial by Purkhet Abderyim, 3D Division, I-Net Corporation

Abstract
The purpose of this tutorial is to introduce the second of two software packages created by the 3D Division of I-Net Corporation to developers and users of haptic interface empowered systems. The second package, the Haptic Communication Toolkit (HCT) provides developers with an API to handle real-time communication via networks among a potentially unlimited number of distributed heterogeneous devices (e.g. haptic displays and other types of IO devices) and distributed processes (e.g. collision detection and graphic rendering). The tutorial will demonstrate how to create shared collaborative environments and multi-haptic applications easily, using the API.