¹University of Arkansas at Little Rock
²University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences

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Abstract—A process that determines whether two or more bodies make contact at one or more points is called contact detection or collision detection. Contact detection is inseparable part of the computer graphics, surgical simulations, and robotics etc. There are large of methods that are used for collision detection. We will review a few of the most common ones. Algorithms for contact determination can be grouped into two general categories - broad-phase and narrow-phase-. This paper provides a comprehensive classification of a collision detection literature for the two phases. Moreover, we have attempted to explain some of the existing algorithms which are not easy to interpret. In the process, we have tried to keep sections self-explanatory without sacrificing depth of the coverage.

Index Terms—Contact detection, collision detection, deformation, bounding volumes, spanner.

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Cite: S. Kockara, T.Halic, C. Bayrak, K. Iqbal, and R. A. Rowe, "Contact Detection Algorithms," Journal of Computers vol. 4, no. 10, pp. 1053-1063, 2009.