Impulse-Based Dynamic Simulation of Articulated Rigid Bodies with Aerodynamics

We propose a physically-based modeling approach to generate effect of aerodynamics. We take the impulse-based method that allows us to treat, articulation, contact, collision in a unified manner. We use the concept of dynamic pressure which is the pressure related to the relative wind velocity, and is frequently adopted in flight simulation and wing design. Moreover, we calculate the aerodynamics according to their shapes, simply in a unified and physically-based approach without tuning too many parameters. A freezing algorithm is also proposed for speed up the simulation. This approach is designed for the use in interactive systems such as VR motion simulator, computer games, and general purpose interactive environments. We demonstrate our approach in an interactive simulation environment with a helicopter levitating with its propeller to show the effect of lift and drag. We also demonstrate the Magnus effect with a ball demo.