23 research outputs found
ChainQueen: A Real-Time Differentiable Physical Simulator for Soft Robotics
Physical simulators have been widely used in robot planning and control.
Among them, differentiable simulators are particularly favored, as they can be
incorporated into gradient-based optimization algorithms that are efficient in
solving inverse problems such as optimal control and motion planning.
Simulating deformable objects is, however, more challenging compared to rigid
body dynamics. The underlying physical laws of deformable objects are more
complex, and the resulting systems have orders of magnitude more degrees of
freedom and therefore they are significantly more computationally expensive to
simulate. Computing gradients with respect to physical design or controller
parameters is typically even more computationally challenging. In this paper,
we propose a real-time, differentiable hybrid Lagrangian-Eulerian physical
simulator for deformable objects, ChainQueen, based on the Moving Least Squares
Material Point Method (MLS-MPM). MLS-MPM can simulate deformable objects
including contact and can be seamlessly incorporated into inference, control
and co-design systems. We demonstrate that our simulator achieves high
precision in both forward simulation and backward gradient computation. We have
successfully employed it in a diverse set of control tasks for soft robots,
including problems with nearly 3,000 decision variables.Comment: In submission to ICRA 2019. Supplemental Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4IWD4iGIsB4 Project Page:
https://github.com/yuanming-hu/ChainQuee
Lagrangian Neural Style Transfer for Fluids
Artistically controlling the shape, motion and appearance of fluid
simulations pose major challenges in visual effects production. In this paper,
we present a neural style transfer approach from images to 3D fluids formulated
in a Lagrangian viewpoint. Using particles for style transfer has unique
benefits compared to grid-based techniques. Attributes are stored on the
particles and hence are trivially transported by the particle motion. This
intrinsically ensures temporal consistency of the optimized stylized structure
and notably improves the resulting quality. Simultaneously, the expensive,
recursive alignment of stylization velocity fields of grid approaches is
unnecessary, reducing the computation time to less than an hour and rendering
neural flow stylization practical in production settings. Moreover, the
Lagrangian representation improves artistic control as it allows for
multi-fluid stylization and consistent color transfer from images, and the
generality of the method enables stylization of smoke and liquids likewise.Comment: ACM Transaction on Graphics (SIGGRAPH 2020), additional materials:
http://www.byungsoo.me/project/lnst/index.htm
Neural Stress Fields for Reduced-order Elastoplasticity and Fracture
We propose a hybrid neural network and physics framework for reduced-order
modeling of elastoplasticity and fracture. State-of-the-art scientific
computing models like the Material Point Method (MPM) faithfully simulate
large-deformation elastoplasticity and fracture mechanics. However, their long
runtime and large memory consumption render them unsuitable for applications
constrained by computation time and memory usage, e.g., virtual reality. To
overcome these barriers, we propose a reduced-order framework. Our key
innovation is training a low-dimensional manifold for the Kirchhoff stress
field via an implicit neural representation. This low-dimensional neural stress
field (NSF) enables efficient evaluations of stress values and,
correspondingly, internal forces at arbitrary spatial locations. In addition,
we also train neural deformation and affine fields to build low-dimensional
manifolds for the deformation and affine momentum fields. These neural stress,
deformation, and affine fields share the same low-dimensional latent space,
which uniquely embeds the high-dimensional simulation state. After training, we
run new simulations by evolving in this single latent space, which drastically
reduces the computation time and memory consumption. Our general
continuum-mechanics-based reduced-order framework is applicable to any
phenomena governed by the elastodynamics equation. To showcase the versatility
of our framework, we simulate a wide range of material behaviors, including
elastica, sand, metal, non-Newtonian fluids, fracture, contact, and collision.
We demonstrate dimension reduction by up to 100,000X and time savings by up to
10X
A moving least square reproducing kernel particle method for unified multiphase continuum simulation
In physically based-based animation, pure particle methods are popular due to their simple data structure, easy implementation, and convenient parallelization. As a pure particle-based method and using Galerkin discretization, the Moving Least Square Reproducing Kernel Method (MLSRK) was developed in engineering computation as a general numerical tool for solving PDEs. The basic idea of Moving Least Square (MLS) has also been used in computer graphics to estimate deformation gradient for deformable solids. Based on these previous studies, we propose a multiphase MLSRK framework that animates complex and coupled fluids and solids in a unified manner. Specifically, we use the Cauchy momentum equation and phase field model to uniformly capture the momentum balance and phase evolution/interaction in a multiphase system, and systematically formulate the MLSRK discretization to support general multiphase constitutive models. A series of animation examples are presented to demonstrate the performance of our new multiphase MLSRK framework, including hyperelastic, elastoplastic, viscous, fracturing and multiphase coupling behaviours etc
Cell-Constrained Particles for Incompressible Fluids
Incompressibility is a fundamental condition in most fluid models.
Accumulation of simulation errors violates it and causes volume loss. Past work
suggested correction methods to battle it. These methods, however, are
imperfect and in some cases inadequate. We present a method for fluid
simulation that strictly enforces incompressibility based on a grid-related
definition of discrete incompressibility.
We formulate a linear programming (LP) problem that bounds the number of
particles that end up in each grid cell. A variant of the band method is
offered for acceleration, which requires special constraints to ensure volume
preservation. Further acceleration is achieved by simplifying the problem and
adding a special band correction step that is formulated as a minimum-cost flow
problem (MCFP). We also address coupling with solids in our framework and
demonstrate advantages over prior work
Towards a predictive multi-phase model for alpine mass movements and process cascades
Alpine mass movements can generate process cascades involving different materials including rock, ice, snow, and water. Numerical modelling is an essential tool for the quantification of natural hazards. Yet, state-of-the-art operational models are based on parameter back-calculation and thus reach their limits when facing unprecedented or complex events. Here, we advance our predictive capabilities for mass movements and process cascades on the basis of a three-dimensional numerical model, coupling fundamental conservation laws to finite strain elastoplasticity. In this framework, model parameters have a true physical meaning and can be evaluated from material testing, thus conferring to the model a strong predictive nature. Through its hybrid Eulerian–Lagrangian character, our approach naturally reproduces fractures and collisions, erosion/deposition phenomena, and multi-phase interactions, which finally grant accurate simulations of complex dynamics. Four benchmark simulations demonstrate the physical detail of the model and its applicability to real-world full-scale events, including various materials and ranging through five orders of magnitude in volume. In the future, our model can support risk-management strategies through predictions of the impact of potentially catastrophic cascading mass movements at vulnerable sites