Compliant contact models for rigid body collisions

Previous work in rigid body dynamic simulation has relied on rigid body impact models to model collisions. The well-known models due to Newton, Poisson, and Brach, are each based on a definition of a coefficient of restitution for rigid body impact. The objective of this paper is to develop a new model that overcomes the deficiencies of these models in frictional impacts and to present a formulation to solve problems with multiple concurrent impacts. The model is based on simple mechanical elements that model energy storage and dissipation at each contact. We present an algorithm for simulating concurrent impacts between rigid bodies and illustrate its application with a variation of the peg-in-hole insertion problem.