Finding the best conic approximation to the convolution curve of two compatible conics based on Hausdorff distance

We consider the convolution of two compatible conic segments. First, we find an exact parametric expression for the convolution curve, which is not rational in general, and then we find the conic approximation to the convolution curve with the minimum error. The error is expressed as a Hausdorff distance which measures the square of the maximal collinear normal distance between the approximation and the exact convolution curve. For this purpose, we identify the necessary and sufficient conditions for the conic approximation to have the minimum Haudorff distance from the convolution curve. Then we use an iterative process to generate a sequence of weights for the rational quadratic Bézier curves which we use to represent conic approximations. This sequence converges to the weight of the rational quadratic Bézier curve with the minimum Hausdorff distance, within a given tolerance. We verify our method with several examples.     

Error-bounded biarc approximation of planar curves

Presented in this paper is an error-bounded method for approximating a planar parametric curve with a G¹ arc spline made of biarcs. The approximated curve is not restricted in specially bounded shapes of confined degrees, and it does not have to be compatible with non-uniform rational B-splines (NURBS). The main idea of the method is to divide the curve of interest into smaller segments so that each segment can be approximated with a biarc within a specified tolerance. The biarc is obtained by polygonal approximation to the curve segment and single biarc fitting to the polygon. In this process, the Hausdorff distance is used as a criterion for approximation quality. An iterative approach is proposed for fitting an optimized biarc to a given polygon and its two end tangents. The approach is robust and acceptable in computation since the Hausdorff distance between a polygon and its fitted biarc can be computed directly and precisely. The method is simple in concept, provides reasonable accuracy control, and produces the smaller number of biarcs in the resulting arc spline. Some experimental results demonstrate its usefulness and quality.     

Blending two parametric curves

Segments of two given curves can be blended to produce a segment of a new curve. Blending can provide a smooth transition from one curve to another and can give various degrees of smoothness at the endpoints of the blend, where the smoothness is measured analogously to parametric continuity C⁽ⁿ⁾ and geometric continuity G⁽ⁿ⁾. Blending can provide an approximation to a given curve segment. The accuracy of the approximation to short segments obtained by different blending formulas is compared via asymptotic analysis. Finally, it is shown how to find a blend that is a parametric polynomial whose parameter is approximately an arc length parameter.     

Rational Pythagorean-hodograph space curves

A method for constructing rational Pythagorean-hodograph (PH) curves in R³ is proposed, based on prescribing a field of rational unit tangent vectors. This tangent field, together with its first derivative, defines the orientation of the curve osculating planes. Augmenting this orientation information with a rational support function, that specifies the distance of each osculating plane from the origin, then completely defines a one-parameter family of osculating planes, whose envelope is a developable ruled surface. The rational PH space curve is identified as the edge of regression (or cuspidal edge) of this developable surface. Such curves have rational parametric speed, and also rational adapted frames that satisfy the same conditions as polynomial PH curves in order to be rotation-minimizing with respect to the tangent. The key properties of such rational PH space curves are derived and illustrated by examples, and simple algorithms for their practical construction by geometric Hermite interpolation are also proposed.     

Curve fitting and fairing using conic splines

We present an efficient geometric algorithm for conic spline curve fitting and fairing through conic arc scaling. Given a set of planar points, we first construct a tangent continuous conic spline by interpolating the points with a quadratic Bézier spline curve or fitting the data with a smooth arc spline. The arc spline can be represented as a piecewise quadratic rational Bézier spline curve. For parts of the G¹ conic spline without an inflection, we can obtain a curvature continuous conic spline by adjusting the tangent direction at the joint point and scaling the weights for every two adjacent rational Bézier curves. The unwanted curvature extrema within conic segments or at some joint points can be removed efficiently by scaling the weights of the conic segments or moving the joint points along the normal direction of the curve at the point. In the end, a fair conic spline curve is obtained that is G² continuous at convex or concave parts and G¹ continuous at inflection points. The main advantages of the method lies in two aspects, one advantage is that we can construct a curvature continuous conic spline by a local algorithm, the other one is that the curvature plot of the conic spline can be controlled efficiently. The method can be used in the field where fair shape is desired by interpolating or approximating a given point set. Numerical examples from simulated and real data are presented to show the efficiency of the new method.     

Generating parametric models of tubes from laser scans

We present an automatic method for computing an accurate parametric model of a piecewise defined pipe surface, consisting of cylinder and torus segments, from an unorganized point set. Our main contributions are reconstruction of the spine curve of a pipe surface from surface samples, and approximation of the spine curve by G¹ continuous circular arcs and line segments. Our algorithm accurately outputs the parametric data required for bending machines to create the reconstructed tube.     

Efficient convex hull computation for planar freeform curves

We present an efficient real-time algorithm for computing the precise convex hulls of planar freeform curves. For this purpose, the planar curves are initially approximated with G¹-biarcs within a given error bound ε in a preprocessing step. The algorithm is based on an efficient construction of approximate convex hulls using circular arcs. The majority of redundant curve segments can be eliminated using simple geometric tests on circular arcs. In several experimental results, we demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach, which shows the performance improvement in the range of 200-300 times speed up compared with the previous results (Elber et al., 2001) [8].     

Curvature continuous offset approximation based on circle approximation using quadratic Bézier biarcs

We present a method for G² end-point interpolation of offset curves using rational Bézier curves. The method is based on a G² end-point interpolation of circular arcs using quadratic Bézier biarcs. We also prove the invariance of the Hausdorff distance between two compatible curves under convolution. Using this result, we obtain the exact Hausdorff distance between an offset curve and its approximation by our method. We present the approximation algorithm and give numerical examples.     

Some remarks on Bézier curves

Parametric polynomial curves in Bézier-Bernstein representation are considered as prohections of rational norm curves of degree n in n-space; from this point of view the singularities of a planar Bézier cubic are determined and expressed by its affine invariants. Secondly, for an arbitrary pair of adjacent parametric curves in homogeneous coordinates, the general conditions for geometric continuity of any order k, G^k, are established.This result generalizes the corresponding conditions in the non-homogeneous (affine) case, recently obtained by [Goodman '84]. Some applications are given for Bézier curves. In particular, for γ-splines [Boehm '85], the existence of a global rational parameter that makes it to a C² parametric curve is shown. Furthermore, for two adjacent rational Bézier curves the complete conditions for G³ are stated using the projective properties of the control points only.     

Optimal Spline Approximation via ℓ0‐Minimization

Splines are part of the standard toolbox for the approximation of functions and curves in ?^d. Still, the problem of finding the spline that best approximates an input function or curve is ill‐posed, since in general this yields a “spline” with an infinite number of segments. The problem can be regularized by adding a penalty term for the number of spline segments. We show how this idea can be formulated as an ?₀‐regularized quadratic problem. This gives us a notion of optimal approximating splines that depend on one parameter, which weights the approximation error against the number of segments. We detail this concept for different types of splines including B‐splines and composite Bézier curves. Based on the latest development in the field of sparse approximation, we devise a solver for the resulting minimization problems and show applications to spline approximation of planar and space curves and to spline conversion of motion capture data.     

A Geometric Approach for Multi-Degree Spline

Multi-degree spline (MD-spline for short) is a generalization of B-spline which comprises of polynomial segments of various degrees.The present paper provides a new definition for MD-spline curves in a geometric intuitive way based on an efficient and simple evaluation algorithm.MD-spline curves maintain various desirable properties of B-spline curves,such as convex hull,local support and variation diminishing properties.They can also be refined exactly with knot insertion.The continuity between two adjacent segments with different degrees is at least C1 and that between two adjacent segments of same degrees d is Cd 1.Benefited by the exact refinement algorithm,we also provide several operators for MD-spline curves,such as converting each curve segment into B′ezier form,an efficient merging algorithm and a new curve subdivision scheme which allows different degrees for each segment.     

C2 interpolation of spatial data subject to arc-length constraints using Pythagorean–hodograph quintic splines

In order to reconstruct spatial curves from discrete electronic sensor data, two alternative C² Pythagorean–hodograph (PH) quintic spline formulations are proposed, interpolating given spatial data subject to prescribed constraints on the arc length of each spline segment. The first approach is concerned with the interpolation of a sequence of points, while the second addresses the interpolation of derivatives only (without spatial localization). The special structure of PH curves allows the arc-length conditions to be expressed as algebraic constraints on the curve coefficients. The C² PH quintic splines are thus defined through minimization of a quadratic function subject to quadratic constraints, and a close starting approximation to the desired solution is identified in order to facilitate efficient construction by iterative methods. The C² PH spline constructions are illustrated by several computed examples.     

A constrained guided G continuous spline curve

A method for drawing a guided G¹ continuous planar spline curve that falls within a closed boundary is presented. The curve is composed of segments of quadratic polynomials (parabolas) and rational quadratics (conics) that join with continuous unit tangent vectors. The boundary is composed of straight line segments and circular arcs.     

Theoretically-based algorithms for robustly tracking intersection curves of deforming surfaces

This paper applies singularity theory of mappings of surfaces to 3-space and the generic transitions occurring in their deformations to develop algorithms for continuously and robustly tracking the intersection curves of two deforming parametric spline surfaces, when the deformation is represented as a family of generalized offset surfaces. The set of intersection curves of two deforming surfaces over all time is formulated as an implicit 2-manifold I in an augmented (by time domain) parametric space R⁵. Hyperplanes corresponding to some fixed time instants may touchI at some isolated transition points, which delineate transition events, i.e. the topological changes to the intersection curves. These transition points are the 0-dimensional solution to a rational system of five constraints in five variables, and can be computed efficiently and robustly with a rational constraint solver using subdivision and hyper-tangent bounding cones. The actual transition events are computed by contouring the local osculating paraboloids. Away from any transition points, the intersection curves do not change topology and evolve according to a simple evolution vector field that is constructed in the Euclidean space in which the surfaces are embedded.     

Data reduction of large vector graphics

Fast algorithm for joint near-optimal approximation of multiple polygonal curves is proposed. It is based on iterative reduced search dynamic programming introduced earlier for the min-εproblem of a single polygonal curve. The proposed algorithm jointly optimizes the number of line segments allocated to the different individual curves, and the approximation of the curves by the given number of segments. Trade-off between time and optimality is controlled by the breadth of the search, and by the numbers of iterations applied.     

A locally controllable spline with tension for interactive curve design

We describe a new type of parametrically defined space curve. The parameters which define these curves allow for the convenient control over local shape attributes while maintaining global second order geometric continuity. The coordinate functions are defined by piecewise segments of rational functions, each segment being the ratio of cubic polynomials and a common quadratic polynomial. Each curve segment is a planar curve and where two segments meet the curvature is zero. This simple mathematical representation permits these curves to be efficiently manipulated and displayed.     

Constrained approximation of rational Bézier curves based on a matrix expression of its end points continuity condition

For high order interpolations at both end points of two rational Bézier curves, we introduce the concept of C^(v,u)-continuity and give a matrix expression of a necessary and sufficient condition for satisfying it. Then we propose three new algorithms, in a unified approach, for the degree reduction of Bézier curves, approximating rational Bézier curves by Bézier curves and the degree reduction of rational Bézier curves respectively; all are in L₂ norm and C^(v,u)-continuity is satisfied. The algorithms for the first and second problems can get the best approximation results, and for the third one, resorting to the steepest descent method in numerical optimization obtains a series of degree reduced curves iteratively with decreasing approximation errors. Compared to some well-known algorithms for the degree reduction of rational Bézier curves, such as the uniformizing weights algorithm, canceling the best linear common divisor algorithm and shifted Chebyshev polynomials algorithm, the new one presented here can give a better approximation error, do multiple degrees of reduction at a time and preserve high order interpolations at both end points.     

Efficient circular arc interpolation based on active tolerance control

In this paper, we present an efficient sub-optimal algorithm for fitting smooth planar parametric curves by G¹ arc splines. To fit a parametric curve by an arc spline within a prescribed tolerance, we first sample a set of points and tangents on the curve adaptively as well as with enough density, so that an interpolation biarc spline curve can be with any desired high accuracy. Then, we construct new biarc curves interpolating local triarc spirals explicitly based on the control of permitted tolerances. To reduce the segment number of fitting arc spline as much as possible, we replace the corresponding parts of the spline by the new biarc curves and compute active tolerances for new interpolation steps. By applying the local biarc curve interpolation procedure recursively and sequentially, the result circular arcs with no radius extreme are minimax-like approximation to the original curve while the arcs with radius extreme approximate the curve parts with curvature extreme well too, and we obtain a near optimal fitting arc spline in the end. Even more, the fitting arc spline has the same end points and end tangents with the original curve, and the arcs will be jointed smoothly if the original curve is composed of several smooth connected pieces. The algorithm is easy to be implemented and generally applicable to circular arc interpolation problem of all kinds of smooth parametric curves. The method can be used in wide fields such as geometric modeling, tool path generation for NC machining and robot path planning, etc. Several numerical examples are given to show the effectiveness and efficiency of the method.     

Curves with rational Frenet-Serret motion

This paper examines a special type of rational curves called rational Frenet-Serret (RF) curves distinguished by the property that the motion of their Frenet-Serret frame is rational. It is shown that a rational curve is an RF curve if and only if it has rational speed and rational curvature. The paper derives a general representation formula for RF curves suitable for geometric design and provides a geometric survey of special RF curves. The special case of a cubic helix is examined thoroughly. Additionally the paper discusses several applications including examples for the design of rational sweeping surfaces, rational pipe surfaces and rational transition surfaces joining sweeps with G¹ continuity.