<p>In Drake PR <a href="https://github.com/RobotLocomotion/drake/pull/12053" rel="nofollow noreferrer">#12503</a>, the <code>ImplicitStribeck</code> code was refactored to reflect the notation in the <a href="https://arxiv.org/abs/1909.05700" rel="nofollow noreferrer">TAMSI arXiv paper</a>, and in <a href="https://github.com/RobotLocomotion/drake/pull/12361" rel="nofollow noreferrer">#12361</a> it was changed to provide a more helpful exception with troubleshooting tips:</p>

<p><a href="https://github.com/RobotLocomotion/drake/blob/v0.15.0/multibody/plant/multibody_plant.cc#L1866-L1878" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://github.com/RobotLocomotion/drake/blob/v0.15.0/multibody/plant/multibody_plant.cc#L1866-L1878</a></p>

<p>Can you try out a later version (e.g. 0.15.0), and then try out the troubleshooting instructions there? (You've already tried changing step size in the simulator, but you may want to check on the stiffness of your overall system, etc.)</p>
Drake -- Coredump in Simulation When There is a Contact
<p>I have a Kuka arm and some objects set up in my simulation(very similar to manipulation station example), and I have been running into coredump error below whenever there is a contact between the robot and the objects.</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>"abort: Failure at multibody/plant/multibody_plant.cc:1640 in CalcImplicitStribeckResults(): condition 'info == ImplicitStribeckSolverResult::kSuccess' failed.
  Aborted (core dumped)"</p>
</blockquote>

<p>Decreasing the integration step size for the simulator did not help, so I ended up tracing back the error and commented out the condition that is causing the <code>error( "DRAKE_DEMAND(info == ImplicitStribeckSolverResult::kSuccess);" )</code>, which seems to coredump a lot less often.</p>

<p>However, I am guessing that condition is there for a reason, so would commenting the line out cause any other issues in the simulation? What is the proper way to fix the coredump problem?</p>