On flexible body approximations of rigid body dynamics

This paper demonstrates that techniques in flexible body dynamics can yield surprising results when applied to rigid bodies. The discussion presents a technique for constructing rigid bodies from collections of masses and springs, and demonstrates that the simulation calculates many features of rigid body dynamics such as the behavior of the center of mass and the moments of inertia, free of charge. Moreover, complex rotational features such as the precession of a spinning top and the behavior of a gyroscope arise, again without the need of extending the model in any way. Keywords: Physically based modeling, animation, rigid body dynamics, particle systems, mass-spring systems 1.