The daVinci project brings together mathematicians and engineers to address the urgent need for a thorough understanding of the mathematics of engineering systems that can be modeled by Differential Algebraic Inequalities and Differential Complementarity Problems

I have created a new software tool dubbed dVC capable of simulating systems of bodies experiencing unilateral contacts with friction. Since different problems require different levels of accuracy, dVC provides user-selectable body types (rigid or locally-compliant), motion models (first-order, quasi- static, dynamic), and several state-of-the-art time-stepping methods. One can also choose to include friction between each body and the plane of motion. To support optimal and robust part design, dVC also allows on-the-fly changes to parameters of the geometric and physical models.

dVC is joint work with Patrick Marion, Binh Nguyen, and Benjamin Roghani from the Computer Science Department of RPI and Jonathan Fink at GRASP Lab UPenn under the supervision of Dr. Jeff Trinkle. We also collaborate with other members of the daVinci group.

An often overlooked question in rigid body dynamic simulation is that of determining which model, physical or geometric, is sufficient for the specific requirements of the problem. To illustrate, see this simple "Peg-In-Hole" application in rigid body dynamics with unilateral contact. Various dynamics settings and models can have vastly different outcomes on the simulation. My goal is to try and understand the relationships between these various models.

In my first year, I wrote an applet for part seating, that is the sensorless acquisition of multiple contact points between planar parts. The user can draw a part and place the desired contact points. The applet will then calculate an insertion plan and highlight the region(s) on the the part a user could push to seat the part.