A Hybrid Bounding Volume Algorithm to Detect Collisions between Deformable Objects

An algorithm to detect collisions between both rigid and deformable objects is presented. The approach exploits benefits of a bounding volume hierarchy (BVH) and a feature-based method. The BVH decomposes the three dimensional polygonal objects into a hierarchy of spheres. The lowest level of the hierarchy is formed utilising spheres which bound 1-rings surrounding each vertex of the original mesh. Spatial coherence is exploited during construction to ensure that adjacent 1-rings are joined first. This promotes tighter bounding volumes as the objects deform. Experiments were carried out to analyse the performance of the method when varying the BVH construction to consider octrees and binary trees. To illustrate the enhancement the approach provides it has been compared against standard Sphere and Axis-aligned Bounding Volume Hierarchies.