A simple

fast collision detection method is presented

which is based on possible collision set (PCS). The algorithm comprises two main parts: the construction of the possible collision set and the computation of the soonest possible time of collision. First a track bounding box

whose edges are parallel to the global coordinate axes is computed for each rigid body in the environment. Then a spatial tiling technique is employed to obtain a possible collision set P of current frame by searching which bounding boxes overlap. After that

a soonest possible time of collision tmin is estimated for every pair of rigid bodies in the P based on Lin-Canny closest features algorithm. Thus the collision check will only be applied to the element that has the minimum value of tmin. Compared with other methods

this one can reduce times of collision check dramatically in collision intensive environment and real time or near real time collision detection can be achieved easily. In addition

the PCS method assures integrality and uniqueness of collision detection in the environment. Some simulation tests are also designed ?based on the method. The correctness and effectiveness are proved in both theory and practice.