On the potential of physics-based animation for task programming in virtual reality

Physics-based animation is becoming an essential feature for any advanced simulation software. In this paper we explore potential benefits of physics-based modeling for task programming in virtual reality. Firstly, we show how realistic animation of manipulation tasks can be exploited for learning sequential constraints from user demonstrations. In particular, we propose a method where information about physical interaction is used to discover task precedences and to reason about task similarities at the goal level. A second contribution of the paper is the application of physics-based modeling to the problem of disassembly sequence planning. Experiments have been performed in a desktop virtual reality environment with dataglove and motion tracker.