Grant: Engage Grants Program
University of Regina
$25,000.00
Virtual soil and coal
FY 2013-14
Summary
The goal of this project is to develop software that animates and visualizes volumetric data which isrepresentative of natural substances such as soil and coal. Serious Labs, Inc. produces training software foroperating construction machinery, such as bulldozers, excavators, and front end loaders, and miningmachinery, such as continuous miners. A challenge in developing this type of training software is realisticallyanimating the soil and coal that is manipulated by the machinery. Soil has volume, forms piles, flows whendumped, and separates when poured slowly. Similarly, coal has volume, is solid and rock-like, can break intochunks of varying sizes, and can be crushed into dust similar to soil.Our approach to the simulation of virtual soil and coal will emphasize three-dimensional density volumes tostore the state of the terrain. With this volumetric approach, the three-dimensional (3D) surface can be readilydeformed to allow overhangs, caves, and tunnels. The volumetric approach is based on equal-sized 3Delements known as voxels, each of which occupies a small, unique, 3D subspace. Each voxel has an associatedmass (or equivalently density, because voxels are equal-sized), which defines the amount of soil or coaloccupying its space. To allow these natural substances to move in a physically realistic manner through space,the densities of the voxels will be dynamic. To achieve real-time performance, we will perform densitymovements in parallel by offloading them to the graphics processing unit (GPU) using a general-purpose GPUcomputing library, such as Microsoft's DirectCompute. To allow a solid object to be broken into two or moresolid objects, we will experiment with a voxel-based approach based on constructive volumetric geometry. Wemay also use other representations, such as simplified shapes for collision detection, geometric meshes forvisualization, and height span maps.We will implement our approach as a stand-alone C++ program, and as a plug-in for a commerciallyavailable game engine.
Program
Engage Grants Program
Recipient
Location
Saskatchewan, Canada
Recipient Type
Academia
Type
Grant
Source
NSERC's Awards Data
As published
Application id
452979-2013
Name nom
Hamilton, Howard
Department département
Computer Science
Organization id
17
Institution établissement
University of Regina
Province en
Saskatchewan
Province fr
Saskatchewan
Country en
CANADA
Country fr
CANADA
Fiscal year exercice financier
2013
Competition year année de concours
2013
Award amount
25000
Program id
EGP
Program name en
Engage Grants Program
Program name fr
Programme de subventions d'engagement partenariat
Group en
Research partnerships programs
Group fr
Programmes de partenariat
Committee code
1555
Committee name en
Prairie Internal Decision Committee
Committee name fr
Comité de décision interne pour les Prairies
Area of application code
801
Area of application group en
Information and communication services
Area of application group fr
Services d'information et de télécommunications
Area of application en
Computer software
Area of application fr
Logiciel
Research subject code
2707
Research subject group en
Information technology
Research subject group fr
Technologie de l'information
Research subject en
Graphics
Research subject fr
Infographie
Partie
1
Nb partie
1
Application title
Virtual soil and coal
Keyword
NSERC
Application summary
The goal of this project is to develop software that animates and visualizes volumetric data which isrepresentative of natural substances such as soil and coal. Serious Labs, Inc. produces training software foroperating construction machinery, such as bulldozers, excavators, and front end loaders, and miningmachinery, such as continuous miners. A challenge in developing this type of training software is realisticallyanimating the soil and coal that is manipulated by the machinery. Soil has volume, forms piles, flows whendumped, and separates when poured slowly. Similarly, coal has volume, is solid and rock-like, can break intochunks of varying sizes, and can be crushed into dust similar to soil.Our approach to the simulation of virtual soil and coal will emphasize three-dimensional density volumes tostore the state of the terrain. With this volumetric approach, the three-dimensional (3D) surface can be readilydeformed to allow overhangs, caves, and tunnels. The volumetric approach is based on equal-sized 3Delements known as voxels, each of which occupies a small, unique, 3D subspace. Each voxel has an associatedmass (or equivalently density, because voxels are equal-sized), which defines the amount of soil or coaloccupying its space. To allow these natural substances to move in a physically realistic manner through space,the densities of the voxels will be dynamic. To achieve real-time performance, we will perform densitymovements in parallel by offloading them to the graphics processing unit (GPU) using a general-purpose GPUcomputing library, such as Microsoft's DirectCompute. To allow a solid object to be broken into two or moresolid objects, we will experiment with a voxel-based approach based on constructive volumetric geometry. Wemay also use other representations, such as simplified shapes for collision detection, geometric meshes forvisualization, and height span maps.We will implement our approach as a stand-alone C++ program, and as a plug-in for a commerciallyavailable game engine.
