Implementation of multi-rigid-body dynamics within a robotic grasping simulator

Robotic simulation systems allow researchers, engineers, and students to test control algorithms in a safe environment, but until recently these systems only simulated the dynamics of the mechanism itself and could not simulate (complex) contacts with other bodies in the environment. However, if the robot´s task involves grasping an object, accurate simulation of contact and friction forces is a necessity. Recently developed methods formulate the constrains as a linear complementarity problem, allowing a solution to be computed using proven algorithms, but for anyone implementing such a system, several additional considerations must be taken into account. In this paper we present the implementation of the dynamics module of our freely available grasping simulator and present an example grasping task.