EVENT-BASED POOL PHYSICS SIMULATOR 1 AN EVENT-BASED POOL PHYSICS SIMULATOR

A method to simulate the physics of the game of pool is presented. The method is based upon a parametrization of ball motion which allows the time of occurrence of events, such as collisions and transitions between motion states, to be solved analytically. It is shown that the occurrences of all possible events are determined as the roots of polynomials up to fourth order, for which closed-form solutions exist. The method is both accurate, returning continuous space solutions for both time and space parameters, and efficient, requiring no iterative numerical methods. It is suitable for use within a game tree search, which requires a great many potential shots to be modeled efficiently, and a robotic pool system, which requires high accuracy in predicting shot outcomes. 1