A new algorithm for detecting the collision of moving objects

Iterative algorithms for detecting the collision of convex objects whose motion is characterized by a path in configuration space are described. They use as an essential substep the computation of the distance between the two objects. When the objects are polytopes in either two or three dimensional space, an algorithm is given which terminates in a finite number of iterations. It determines either that no collision occurs or the first collision point on the path. Extensive numerical experiments for practical problems show that the computational time is short and grows only linearly in the total number of vertices of the two polytopes.