Development and Validation of Geometry-Based Compliant Contact Models

Simulations are often used to evaluate space manipulator tasks that involve contact with the environment, due to the difficulty of performing realistic earth-based experiments. An important aspect of these simulations is the contact model used to determine the interbody forces between two objects in contact. In this paper, we present two compliant contact models for polyhedral contacting objects. These models explicitly consider the distinction between true contact geometry and interference geometry. To account for the energy dissipated during impact, a damping force is included in the two models. Model validation is then performed in three ways: against analytical models, against experimental data, and against finite element method (FEM) models. The results of the validation exercise demonstrate the fidelity of the proposed models.