Gaussian-Augmented Physics Simulation and System Identification with Complex Colliders

Xiaolong Wang (Ant Group) · Federico Vasile (Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia) · Ri-Zhao Qiu (University of California, San Diego) · Lorenzo Natale (Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia)
arbitrarily shaped colliderscollision handling mechanismdifferentiable renderingend-to-end optimizationgeometrygraphics applicationsmaterial point methodnon-planar surfacesoptimization frameworkphysical property estimationrigid body interactionrobotics applicationssystem identificationview synthesisvisual observations

System identification involving the geometry, appearance, and physical properties from video observations is a challenging task with applications in robotics and graphics. Recent approaches have relied on fully differentiable Material Point Method (MPM) and rendering for simultaneous optimization of these properties. However, they are limited to simplified object-environment interactions with planar colliders and fail in more challenging scenarios where objects collide with non-planar surfaces. We propose AS-DiffMPM, a differentiable MPM framework that enables physical property estimation with arbitrarily shaped colliders. Our approach extends existing methods by incorporating a differentiable collision handling mechanism, allowing the target object to interact with complex rigid bodies while maintaining end-to-end optimization. We show AS-DiffMPM can be easily interfaced with various novel view synthesis methods as a framework for system identification from visual observations.