Research on real-time collision detection for vehicle driving in the virtual environment

Collision detection plays a critical role in the immersion and authenticity of virtual driving as a virtual reality system. Through analyzing and comparing several common algorithms of collision detection, a method of real-time collision detection was further developed, including two detecting phases, pre-collision detection and accurate-collision detection. First of all, Radar ranging theory was used in the pre-collision detection as it could predict the possible colliding region to save computer resources effectively. If the pre-collision were true, one collision type would be chosen which determined by the relative direction of two vehicles. Subsequently, an accurate collision detection were about to engage in corresponding to the collision type. Every collision type has its own collision detection algorithms. A mathematic model was built up for the minimal collision distance which ensured the real-time and authenticity of vehicle driving in virtual environment. The results showed that the method was simple and met the demand of real-time, which satisfied the detecting requirements of vehicle driving in the virtual environment. Moreover, it can also be used in other collision detection experiments.