Towards particle system based stress visualization

A particle system, as understood in computer science, is a novel technique for modeling robots in their environment. Particle systems have traditionally been used for modeling complex dynamics of fluids and gases. In this paper, as the main contribution, we adapt our earlier work on particle systems, to compute a preliminary stress visualization for a bipedal robot walking on a soft sediment. The underlying problem of modeling rigid objects with particles is solved by introducing rack particles that enforce structural rigidness while maintaining deformability under stress. The presented approach opens many new possibilities, as it provides a computationally lightweight and unified, complementary framework for computing a stress of interacting, moving components with underspecified, non-trivial materialistic properties.