Awesome Collision Detection

A curated list of collision detection libraries, algorithms, papers, and related resources.

Contents

• Libraries
• Mesh Processing
• Papers
• Books
• Articles
• Other Awesome Lists
• Comparisons
• Contributing
• Star History
• License

Legend: 🟢 commit within 1 yr · 🟡 commit within 3 yr · 💀 archived · ⭐ GitHub stars as of 2026-10-12. Software entries are ordered by stars; inactive entries (archived, or no commits for 3+ years) are folded at the end of each category.

Libraries

Collision detection, distance query, and proximity query libraries. See also Comparisons.

• 🟢 MuJoCo - Physics simulator with contact, collision, and distance queries for robotics and control. ⭐ 15.6k
• 🟢 Bullet - Real-time physics SDK with collision detection for games, robotics, and simulation. ⭐ 14.8k
• 🟢 Box2D - 2D physics engine with collision, distance, ray cast, and shape cast queries. ⭐ 10.4k
• 🟢 tinyc2 - Single-header 2D collision detection library for primitive shapes. ⭐ 5.1k
• 🟢 PhysX - NVIDIA physics SDK with scene queries, contact generation, and collision detection. ⭐ 4.8k
• 🟡 ReactPhysics3d - C++ 3D physics engine with rigid body collision detection. ⭐ 1.8k
• 🟢 FCL - Flexible Collision Library for collision, distance, and continuous collision queries. ⭐ 1.8k
• 🟢 Parry - Rust collision detection and geometric query library from Dimforge. ⭐ 879
• 🟢 coal (HPP-FCL) - Collision detection and distance query library derived from HPP-FCL. ⭐ 650
• 🟢 python-fcl - Python bindings for FCL collision, distance, and continuous collision queries. ⭐ 271
• 🟢 pytorch_volumetric - PyTorch utilities for volumetric signed distance fields and differentiable collision queries. ⭐ 250
• 🟢 OpenGJK - GJK-based minimum distance library with bindings for multiple languages. ⭐ 206
• 🟢 Tight-Inclusion - Conservative continuous collision detection library with minimum separation support. ⭐ 161
• 🟢 Kraft - Object Pascal physics engine with discrete and optional continuous collision detection. ⭐ 132
• ODE - Open Dynamics Engine with rigid body simulation and collision detection. [bitbucket]

Some libraries, such as ODE and Bullet, are physics engines that can also be used as collision detection libraries.

Inactive (12): archived or no commits for 3+ years

• 💀 qu3e - Lightweight 3D rigid body physics engine with collision detection. ⭐ 993 · last commit 2021
• ncollide - Rust collision detection library for 2D and 3D geometric queries. ⭐ 925 · last commit 2022
• libccd - Small C library for collision detection between convex shapes using GJK and EPA. ⭐ 652 · last commit 2018
• BEPUphysics 1 - Pure C# physics engine with broadphase and narrowphase collision detection. ⭐ 434 · last commit 2021
• collision-rs - Rust collision detection library with broadphase and narrowphase queries. ⭐ 129 · last commit 2021
• CCD-Wrapper - Wrapper and benchmark for continuous collision detection algorithms. ⭐ 61 · last commit 2022
• JitterPhysics - C# rigid body physics engine with collision detection support. ⭐ 47 · last commit 2021
• OZCollide - Legacy collision detection library. ⭐ 4 · last commit 2017
• ColDet - 3D Collision Detection.
• GIMPACT - Tools for geometry processing and collision detection.
• OPCODE - Optimized Collision Detection.
• SOLID - Collision detection of 3D objects undergoing rigid motion and deformation.

Mesh Processing

Geometry processing libraries useful for collision-ready meshes and convex approximations.

• 🟢 libigl - A simple C++ geometry processing library. ⭐ 5.1k
• 🟢 CoACD - Approximate convex decomposition for collision-aware mesh approximation. ⭐ 1.2k
• 🟢 cinolib - A generic programming header only C++ library for processing polygonal and polyhedral meshes. ⭐ 1.1k

Inactive (1): archived or no commits for 3+ years

• bounding-mesh - Implementation of the bounding mesh and bounding convex decomposition algorithms for single-sided mesh approximation. ⭐ 351 · last commit 2019

Papers

Research papers on collision detection, distance and proximity queries, and supporting algorithms.

Collision Detection and Distance Computation

• GJK++: Leveraging Acceleration Methods for Faster Collision Detection (2023), Montaut et al. [pdf, code, benchmarks]
• Collision Detection Accelerated: An Optimization Perspective (2022), Montaut et al. [pdf, code, benchmarks]
• A fast procedure for computing the distance between complex objects in three-dimensional space (1988) Gilbert, Johnson and Keerthi [pdf]

Differentiable Collision Detection

• Differentiable Collision Detection: a Randomized Smoothing Approach (2022), Montaut et al. [pdf, code]

Triangle-triangle Test

• A faster triangle-to-triangle intersection test algorithm (2013), L.-Y. Wei.
• Efficient triangle-triangle intersection test for OBB-based collision detection (2009), J.-W. Chang et al. [pdf]
• A fast triangle to triangle intersection test for collision detection (2006), O. Tropp et al. [pdf]
  • A failure case was reported in Stack Overflow.
• Faster Triangle-Triangle Intersection Tests (2006), O. Devillers et al. [pdf, code]
• A Fast Triangle-Triangle Intersecion Test (1997), T. Muller. [pdf, code]

Mesh Collision

• Robust contact generation for robot simulation with unstructured meshes (2013), K. Hauser. [pdf, web]
• Approximate Convex Decomposition for 3D Meshes with Collision-Aware Concavity and Tree Search (2022), X. Wei et al. [pdf, project, code, video]

Penetration Depth Computation

• PolyDepth: Real-time Penetration Depth Computation using Iterative Contact-Space Projection (2012), C. Je et al. [pdf]

Proximity Query / Signed Distance Field

• Local Optimization for Robust Signed Distance Field Collision (2020), M. Macklin et al. [pdf, slides, video]
• Hierarchical hp-Adaptive Signed Distance Fields (2016), D. Koschier et al. [pdf, video]
• Voxblox: Building 3d signed distance fields for planning (2016), H Oleynikova et al. [pdf, code]
• Signed distance fields for polygon soup meshes (2014), H. Xu and Jernej Barbic. [pdf]
• Fast Proximity Queries with Swept Sphere Volumes (1999), E. Larsen et al. [pdf, web]

Continuous Collision Detection

• Hierarchical and Controlled Advancement for Continuous Collision Detection of Rigid and Articulated Models (2013), M. Tang et al. [pdf, web]
• Efficient Geometrically Exact Continuous Collision Detection (2012), T. Brochu et al. [pdf]
• C2A: Controlled Conservative Advancement for Continuous Collision Detection of Polygonal Models (2009), M. Tang et al. [pdf]
• Continuous Collision Detection for Articulated Models using Taylor Models and Temporal Culling (2007), X. Zhang et al. [pdf, web]
• Interactive continuous collision detection for non-convex polyhedra (2006), X. Zhang et al. [pdf, web]

Nearest Neighbor

• Faster cover tree (2015), M. Izbicki et al. [pdf, code]
• Fast Approximate Nearest Neighbors with Automatic Algorithm Configuration (2009), M. Muja and D. Lowe. [pdf, code]
• Cover Tree for Nearest Neighbor (2006), A. Beygelzimer et al. [pdf, web, code]

Comprehensive Collision Detection Library

• FCL: A General Purpose Library for Collision and Proximity Queries (2012), J. Pan et al. [pdf, code]

Survey

• Collision Detection: A Survey (2007), S. Kockara et al. [pdf]
• 3D collision detection: a survey (2001), P. Jiménez et al. [pdf]

Books

Books on collision detection algorithms and their implementation.

• Real-Time Collision Detection, CRC Press 2004 (amazon)
• Collision Detection in Interactive 3D Environments, CRC Press 2003 (amazon)

Articles

Articles, talks, tutorials, and blog posts about collision detection and related geometry algorithms.

Overview & Tutorial

• Video Game Physics Tutorial - Part II: Collision Detection for Solid Objects by Nilson Souto
• GPU Rigid Body Simulation (GDC 2013), Erwin Coumans
• OpenCL accelerated rigid body and collision detection (RSS 2011), Erwin Coumans
• Contact Generation (GDC 2010), Erwin Coumans

Benchmark

• spatial-collision-datastructures - Benchmark of various spatial data structures for collision detection.
• Continuous Collision Detection (code) Project page for continuous collision detection papers, implementations, benchmarks, and datasets.

Narrow-phase

• Algorithm table for narrowphase algorithms
• 3D Collision detection by Miguel Casillas
• Collision Detection (code) by Jeff Thompson - This book explains the algorithms behind those collisions using basic shapes like circles, rectangles, and lines so you can implement them into your own projects.
• Note: The Gibert-Jonson-Keerthi algorithm by Christer Ericson

Space Partitioning

• Benchmark of various spatial data structures for collision detection
• Bounding volume hierarchy
  • Bounding Volume Hierarchy Optimization through Agglomerative Treelet Restructuring (paper, code) by Leonardo R. Domingues and Helio Pedrini.
  • Dynamic AABB Tree by Randy Gaul
  • Efficient BVH Construction via Approximate Agglomerative Clustering (pdf) by Yan Gu et al.
  • Octree vs BVH by Thomas Diewald

Other Awesome Lists

Related curated lists and collections.

• 🟢 Awesome Robotics Libraries - This is a list of various libraries and software for robotics. It's also attempting to provide some comparisons for selected libraries and software. ⭐ 3.1k

Contributing

Contributions are very welcome! Please read the contribution guidelines first. Also, please feel free to report any error.

Star History

License