Beyond the Ragdoll: Designing a Safe-Falling Controller for Physically Simulated Characters

Lovro Boban, Mirko Sužnjević

2025

Abstract

In this paper we propose the design for a procedural, physically simulated animation system that produces safe falling animations using reinforcement learning. A character controller is trained to minimize external and internal forces on the humanoid character's body after it is pushed backwards on a flat surface. We design a questionnaire and conduct a user study that compares the reinforcement learning approach with a motion capture approach using subjective ratings on various aspects of the character's movement. Our findings, based on a sample size of (n = 25), indicate that users prefer the motion capture approach on 6 out of 8 aspects, but prefer the reinforcement learning approach on the aspect of reactivity.

Paper Citation

in Harvard Style

Boban L. and Sužnjević M. (2025). Beyond the Ragdoll: Designing a Safe-Falling Controller for Physically Simulated Characters. In Proceedings of the 20th International Joint Conference on Computer Vision, Imaging and Computer Graphics Theory and Applications - Volume 1: GRAPP; ISBN 978-989-758-728-3, SciTePress, pages 323-330. DOI: 10.5220/0013259200003912

in Bibtex Style

@conference{grapp25,
author={Lovro Boban and Mirko Sužnjević},
title={Beyond the Ragdoll: Designing a Safe-Falling Controller for Physically Simulated Characters},
booktitle={Proceedings of the 20th International Joint Conference on Computer Vision, Imaging and Computer Graphics Theory and Applications - Volume 1: GRAPP},
year={2025},
pages={323-330},
publisher={SciTePress},
organization={INSTICC},
doi={10.5220/0013259200003912},
isbn={978-989-758-728-3},
}

in EndNote Style

TY - CONF

JO - Proceedings of the 20th International Joint Conference on Computer Vision, Imaging and Computer Graphics Theory and Applications - Volume 1: GRAPP
TI - Beyond the Ragdoll: Designing a Safe-Falling Controller for Physically Simulated Characters
SN - 978-989-758-728-3
AU - Boban L.
AU - Sužnjević M.
PY - 2025
SP - 323
EP - 330
DO - 10.5220/0013259200003912
PB - SciTePress