An Algorithm for Computing the Minimum Distance between Two Convex Polyhedra in Three-Dimensional Space

Efficient and exact collision detection is very important to improving reality and enhancing immersion in virtual environment. A fast algorithm for computing the minimum distance between two convex polyhedra is presented. Any polyhedral objects can be represented as convex hulls of its vertex value in three-dimensional space. The vertex representation of the convex polyhedral is used to calculate the distance between two static convex objects. The algorithm transform the collision detection problem into non-linear programming problem of computing the minimum distance between two objects, and then detect collision by the value of minimum distance. The simulation results demonstrate the performance of the new method.