Title: Fast Simulation of Vehicles with Non-deformable Tracks,
Abstract: This paper presents a novel technique that allows for both computationally
fast and sufficiently plausible simulation of vehicles with non-deformable
tracks. The method is based on an effect we have called Contact Surface Motion.
A comparison with several other methods for simulation of tracked vehicle
dynamics is presented with the aim to evaluate methods that are available
off-the-shelf or with minimum effort in general-purpose robotics simulators.
The proposed method is implemented as a plugin for the open-source
physics-based simulator Gazebo using the Open Dynamics Engine.