Nvidia patents faster way to simulate physical objects in real-time apps
Nvidia describes a method for simulating how solid objects bump into each other or move through joints in computer programs. Instead of using tiny, slow time steps to keep the physics accurate, the system uses a specific time interval to calculate movement and adjust forces more efficiently.
In the filing’s own words
Modeling contact between two or more objects (such as a robotic arm placing a block on a stack of blocks) or articulations of a series of linked joints (such as modeling a backhoe) in a real-time computing application can introduce additional energy into the system or fail to resolve a constraint imposed on the system. Current techniques attempt to resolve these issues, for example, by using very small time steps. Very small time steps, however, can significantly increase computational costs of the modeling simulation. The introduced simulation techniques for rigid bodies use a time interval to reduce linearization artifacts due to the small time steps and reduce computational costs with faster solver convergence by permitting more efficient bias calculations. High mass handling can also be improved through the more efficient bias calculations.
What exactly they claim (claim 1)
1. A rigid body solver system, comprising: one or more processing units to: receive a set of parameters for a rigid body simulation of objects interacting in a real-time computing application; determine a time interval based on a time step and a number of solver iterations specified for the simulation; accumulate a linear delta value and an angular delta value for each of the objects based on the time interval; update a bias value using the linear delta value and the angular delta value, and perform the simulation utilizing a rigid body solver, the time interval, the bias value, and the set of parameters, wherein the simulation is a rigid body contact or joint simulation between first and second objects of the objects and utilizes partial resolutions based on the time interval to update the set of parameters during the simulation.
Facts
- Company
- Nvidia (Nvidia Corporation)
- Official title
- Techniques for simulating objects interacting in a real-time computing application
- Patent number
- US12755068B2
- Application number
- 17549529
- Filed
- Dec 13, 2021
- Granted
- Oct 6, 2026
- Inventors
- 2
- Claims
- 22
Classified under
G06F 30/20 Physics & computingMore from Nvidia in AI & software
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Summaries are simplified from the filing’s own abstract and first claim. A patent filing is not a product announcement.
Patent data and drawings: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Nebula is not affiliated with or endorsed by the USPTO.