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Introduction
where d is the distance between two points in Rm . Thus the Hausdorff distance
between and S is given by
H (, S) = inf H (, S) = c n + O( n+1 ),
SS
where is the arc length of the curve and n N denotes the approximation
order of by the class of spline curves S and c is a positive constant of approx-
imation. In our case c depends on the differential invariants like curvature
and affine curvature, cf. Chapter 2. The expression of approximation order is
used to compute the complexity of the approximating spline. Complexity de-
scribes the minimum number of components of an optimal spline (with respect
to Hausdorff distance and symmetric difference distance in our case) approx-
imating a given curve and is used in the same sense as by Fejes Toth [42],
McClure and Vitale [82] and Ludwig [74]. If the approximation order is n, the
complexity of the approximating spline is of the form c1/n + O(1), where
is the error (e.g., Hausdorff distance) of approximation. To find the optimal
spline we rely on differential geometric properties of the approximating spline
curve.
Limings conic constructions were an exception but were not widely avail-
able outside the aircraft industry. Thus the problem of communicating the
information stored on blueprints to computers (driving milling machines) re-
mained. Milling machines were used for production of dies and stamps for
sheet metal parts. In France, de Casteljau and Bezier helped designers to
abandon the blueprint process altogether. In the U.S., J. Ferguson at Boe-
ing and S. Coons at M.I.T. provided alternative techniques. General Motors
developed its first CAD/CAM system DAC-I (Design Augmented by com-
puter). It used the fundamental curve and surface techniques developed at
General Motors by researchers such as C. de Boor and W. Gordon. M. Sabin
worked for British Aircraft Corporation and was instrumental in developing
their CAD system, Numerical Master Geometry. All these developments took
place in the sixties. All these methods existed in isolation for a while, until the
seventies started to see a union of different research approaches, culminating
in the creation of a new discipline, CAGD. Without the advent of computers
a discipline such as CAGD would not have emerged.
In order to solve some of the theoretical problems that arose from the
blueprint-to-computer challenge, the French car company Citroen hired de
Casteljau in the year 1959. He developed a system which was primarily aimed
at design of curves and surfaces instead of focusing on the reproduction of
existing blueprints. From the very beginning he adopted the use of Bernstein
polynomials for his curve and surface definitions, together with what is now
known as the de Casteljau algorithm. W. Bohm was the first to give de
Casteljau recognition for his work in the research community. During the
early sixties, Pierre Bezier headed the design department and also realized
the need for computer representations of mechanical parts. Beziers work in
this area was widely published in [7, 8, 9]. The Renault CAD/CAM system
UNISURF was based entirely on Bezier curves and surfaces [11].
Figure 1.1: Spline with ducks (Photo: Westlawn Institute of Marine Technology,
www.westlawn.edu)
1.2.1 B
ezier curves
Bezier curves are widely used in computer graphics to model smooth curves.
Industrial applications of Bezier techniques are described by Bezier [10] at
Renault, de Casteljau [26] at Citroen, Farin [38] at Daimler-Benz and Hochfeld
and Ahlers [58] at Volkswagen.
The Bernstein basis functions are the building blocks for Bezier curves. A
Bezier curve of degree n is given by
thus we conclude that the curve is invariant under affine maps. We also infer
that Bezier curves are independent of the choice of the origin of the coordinate
system. Other than these two properties relevant in the context of this thesis
the Bezier curves also have the symmetry property, convex hull property and
the variation diminishing property. For more details of these properties we
refer to Farin [40].
Bezier curves provide a powerful tool in curve design, but they have some
limitations. If the curve to be modeled has a complex shape, then its Bezier
representation will have a very high degree (for practical purposes, degrees
exceeding 10 are considered high [40]), in such cases the curves are modeled
using composite Bezier curves. Such piecewise polynomial curves are an ex-
ample of spline curves. In describing a shape using free-form curves, it is
common to use several curve segments which are joined together with some
degree of continuity. There are two types of continuity that can be imposed
on two adjacent Bezier curves: parametric continuity and geometric continu-
ity. In general, two curves which are parametrically continuous to a certain
degree are also geometrically continuous to that same degree, but the converse
is not true. Parametric spline curves are typically constructed so that the first
n parametric derivatives are the same where the curve segments join. This
type of continuity condition is called C n or n-th order parametric continuity.
E.g., C 0 curves are joined, C 1 curves are C 0 and tangent vectors at the join
1.2. Curve modeling 7
are equal. The concept of geometric continuity was an early attempt at de-
scribing, through geometry, the concept of continuity as expressed through a
parametric function. In general Gn continuity exists if a curve can be repara-
metrized to have C n continuity [3]. E.g., G0 continuity implies two curves
meet at a point, G1 implies G0 and that the tangent vectors of the two curves
at their junction point are proportional. In this thesis the concept of G1
continuity, also known as tangent continuity, is used in curve approximation
(cf. Chapters 3 and 4). Modern imaging systems like Postscript, Asymptote
and Metafont use Bezier splines composed of cubic Bezier curves for drawing
curved shapes and allow for curvature (G2 ) continuity.
form
m m
i=0 wi bi Bi (t)
c(t) = , (1.2)
m m
i=0 wi Bi (t)
where Bim are the Bernstein Bezier basis functions. If we set all the weights
wi to 1 we obtain a polynomial Bezier curve. The rational Bezier curves
inherit affine invariance, the convex hull property, endpoint interpolation and
the variation diminishing property from their polynomial counterpart. One
important property that rational Bezier curves have but do not share with
polynomial Bezier curves is projective invariance, which means that a rational
Bezier curve is invariant under general projective transformations. A conic
section can be represented as a rational quadratic Bezier curve, and when
w0 , w2 6= 0, we can assume the two weights w0 and w2 to be 1. For a proof
cf. [40, Page 221]. Hence, a conic section is given by
Euclidean curvature values i . We can now fit a rational cubic Bezier curve
segments ci such that ci (0) = pi , ci (1) = pi+1 , the unit tangents c0i (0) = qi ,
c0i (1) = qi+1 and curvatures i . Hollig proved in [60] that such a curve exists
under the restrictions on the geometry induced by the data, where the data
corresponds to a sufficiently smooth curve with non-vanishing curvature and
torsion in space. Furthermore, in [60] he gives a method to compute such a
curvature continuous cubic rational spline. In [104] Shaback shows that, given
an odd number of points in general position in R2 , if they can be interpol-
ated at all by a smooth curve of non-vanishing curvature then this would be a
unique G2 interpolant consisting of pieces of conics under some restrictions on
the data. This method of osculatory interpolation leads us to a more general
method of approximation known as Geometric Hermite Interpolation, which
we describe in Section 1.3.3.
which is isotopic to the object itself. For curves and surfaces this paper gives
one of the first practical algorithms that guarantees correct topology. Vacav-
ant, Coeurjolly and Tougne [111] use tools from discrete geometry to build an
original geometrical and topological representation of the implicit curve. We
refer to the thesis of Plantinga [95] for algorithms on isotopic approximation
of implicit curves and surfaces and for detailed survey of various methods in
implicit curve and surface approximation we refer to [52].
and we consider the set of all such elements m . The basic problems that arise
are existence, uniqueness and characterization of a best approximation m .
The best approximation is defined implicitly by (1.3). A characterization is an
explicit description, that can be turned into an algorithm for the computation
of this best approximations. See Chapters 3, 4 and 5 in this thesis, where we
1.3. Approximation Theory 11
solve this approximation problem for curves in the plane with sets of biarcs,
parabolic arcs and conic arcs and for curves in space with bihelical arcs.
Here N (s) denotes the unit normal to at (s) (cf. Chapter 2).
One of the goals of this thesis is to express f (n+1) (s0 ) in terms of differen-
tial invariants of the curve, like (affine) arc length, (affine) curvature and its
derivatives.
where s [a, b] and N is the unit normal vector to the curve . Thus C(s) is a
point on the conic C which is the intersection of the normal line of at (s),
and d(s) denotes the distance of the point C(s) from (s) along the normal
N (s). The Hausdorff distance between and C is thus given by the maximum
of the function d attained in the interval [a, b] and is denoted by H (, C). In
fact it can be easily verified that the Hausdorff distance is attained at a point
s [a, b] where the tangent to at (s) and tangent to conic C at C(s) are
parallel. Let Pni denote the set of all inscribed polygons of the plane convex
curve C and let Pnc denote the set of all circumscribed polygons of C, then
the error with respect to the Hausdorff distance is given by
Z l
1
i c
H (C, Pn ) = H (C, Pn ) = 8 ( 1/2 (s) ds)2 2 + O( n14 ),
1
0 n
here is the Euclidean curvature of the curve C and s its arc length parameter
and l is the arc length. Furthermore in [42], Fejes Toth computes the error
16 1. Introduction
Ludwig in [74] extends the result by Fejes Toth in [42] for approximation
of plane curves with polygons by including second terms of the asymptotic
expansions in (1.4).
1 4
Z
i 1
S (C, Pn ) = k(s) ds n14 + O( n14 ),
12 n2 2 5! 0
where is affine arc length and k is affine curvature, cf. Chapter 2. McClure
and Vitale give sharp estimates of the order of convergence of best approx-
imations of a convex curve by circumscribed and inscribed polygons with n
edges. They compute these results with respect to Hausdorff distance, area
and perimeter metrics. They first obtain the asymptotic characterizations
of best approximations and use this to give a construction of a distribution
function which then is utilized in distributing n knots optimally on a given
convex curve.
The case of asymptotic error analysis of approximation of convex bodies in
d-space by inscribed and circumscribed polytopes with respect to the symmet-
ric difference metric is considered by Gruber in [53, 54, 55]. Given a convex
body C, Pni = Pni (C), (n = d + 1, d + 2, ) denotes the family of convex
polytopes P having at most n vertices inscribed into C, then the asymptotic
error expansion with respect to symmetric difference distance metric is given
by
c
S (C, Pni ) = + O(1) as n .
n2/(d1)
The error with respect to symmetric difference metric for n vertices is thus
given by
Z
i 1
S (C, Pn (C)) = 43 ( K 1/4 ds)2 n1 + O(1),
C
a pair of points, matching unit tangents and curvatures at the two points. The
triarc spline is a more controlled curve, than arc splines
produced by biarcs
1 2 33 3/2 0 3
h + O(h4 ).
and the asymptotic error of approximation is 24 3
The paper by Degen [27] deals with approximation of parametric curves. As
discussed earlier on in this section, in [25] deBoor, Hollig and Sabin consider
approximation of planar curves with curvature continuous cubic polynomial
spline curve. Degen in [27] generalizes their work to consider rational cubic
spline approximation of plane curves and imposes third order contact at the
end points, he shows that this raises the approximation order to 8.
In 1995 H ollig and Koch [59] introduced a general conjecture for GHI
of smooth curves in Rn . They conjecture that, under suitable assumptions,
splines of degree d can interpolate points on a smooth curve in Rn with
approximation order
d1
m = d + 1 + b n1 c.
A lot of work has been done on this conjecture, but only special cases of
it have been solved till date. A. Rababah was one of the first authors to
compare GHI approximants with Taylor polynomials in [100]. He showed, for
an arbitrary degree n, there exists a polynomial one-point approximant having
approximation order b4n/3c. Other special case proofs of the conjecture by
Hollig and Koch can be found in the works of M. Floater. Floater [43, 44]
obtained the optimal approximation order O(h2n ) approximating conics with
polynomial curves of degree n. The approximation of circles with polynomial
curves of degree n was studied earlier by Dokken, et al. in [32]. In a recent
paper [45] in 2006, Floater gave a construction of a polynomial curve of degree
at most n + k 2 for rational curves of degree k and he showed that the order
of approximation was 2n. A. Lin and M. Walker treat Hermite interpolation
of space curves in [71]. They give a construction of a degree 5 Bezier curve
which interpolates given positional, tangent, curvature and torsion data at the
endpoints and show that the order of approximation is O(h8 ). Note that A.
Lin and M. Walkers result satisfies the conjecture of Hollig and Koch in [59]
for R3 . In fact the Hollig-Koch conjecture is also satisfied by parabolic arcs
and proved in Chapter 3. Parabolic arcs are polynomial curves of degree 2 in
R2 and approximate a planar curve with approximation order 4. Furthermore,
the cubic spline approximation of plane curves, which approximates a plane
1.3. Approximation Theory 19
1. Find explicit error bounds for instance for the method of deBoor, Hollig
and Sabin [25]. In particular, if the method admits several solutions:
derive a criterion for the one which yields the lowest error.
2. Are GHI approximants shape preserving, i.e., having the same signs
of curvature, not more inflection points and not more vertices than the
curve to be approximated? - In case they are not, derive additional
conditions to guarantee that property.
3. Compare results of time and space complexity algorithms for curve ap-
proximations. Furthermore, investigate the question whether it is better
to use low degree together with a finer subdivision of the whole curve or
to take higher degrees of the approximant and less segments, taking into
account existence problems, stability of algorithms etc. and comparing
cost of computing under the same tolerance requirements.
biarc spline. Their experimental results demonstrate that they compute close
to a minimum number of biarcs of an n vertex polygon is roughly O(n log n)
time. This kind of algorithms find applications in fields like robot motion
planning and computer aided manufacturing environments. To assess the
quality of this kind of algorithms theoretical bounds are necessary and hence
the complexity results described previously in this section and the ones ob-
tained in this thesis are useful. Furthermore, the expression for the Hausdorff
distance can be used to develop algorithms which are useful in distributing
n points optimally on a curve. This kind of algorithms gives time complex-
ity results which can be helpful in comparing the time complexity results of
algorithms obtained in [34, 57].
The complexity results of this thesis may be of use in applications like
determining the intersection of high-degree curves and the building of ar-
rangements of algebraic curves. For example, in [5] Berberich et al. give an
exact geometry kernel for conic arcs and present a sweep line algorithm for
computing arrangements of curved arcs and in [36, 37] Emiris et al. investigate
the Voronoi diagrams of ellipses. A possible application of our work in such
algorithms is to compute conic arc approximations, of a given arrangements of
curves. Although certified approximation of curves in the plane by conic arcs
is still an open problem, by using the methods suggested in this thesis it is
possible to find sharper bounds between a curve and its approximating conic.
This in turn might be useful in robust computation of geometric structures of
curved objects, like its Voronoi diagram, or its medial axis. In this approach
the number of elements of a conic spline approximation would be orders of
magnitude smaller than the number of line segments needed to approximate
a curved object with the same accuracy. Whether this feature outweighs the
added complexity of the geometric primitives in the computation of Voronoi
diagrams would have to be the goal of extensive experiments.
1.4.1 Background
Let f : Rn R be a smooth function. A point u Rn is a critical point of f
if
f f
x1 |u = = xn |u = 0.
The most common are (local) maxima, minima and saddles. However, there
are a wide variety of more complicated types e.g., the monkey-saddle and fold.
An important distinction between the different critical points is the following.
Then f is stable and for all sufficiently small smooth functions p, the critical
points of f and f + p have the same type. For degenerate critical points
the situation is completely different. In fact every degenerate critical point is
unstable [97].
j=2 j=2
j
tj2 ) + O(tN
PN +1
tN +1
j=2 a3j (t1 1 2 ) .
j (t1 , t2 ) = O(tN 1
+1
tN
2
+1
). Hence the projectivized secant germ S has
a representation as the last two coordinates of S. Now since S is also a Z2
equivariant germ, composing it with the symmetry preserving map such that
x := 21 (t1 + t2 ) and y := 12 (t1 t2 ), we obtain a smooth map S : R2 , 0 R2 , 0,
with S(x, y) = S(x, y).
Proof. We give a proof sketch for the first case for Proposition 1.4.5. Thus
note that 2 = 2x, 3 = 3x2 +y 2 , 4 = 4(x3 +xy 2 ) and 5 = 5x4 +10x2 y 2 +y 4 .
The 2 jet of S at (0, 0) is
This jet is Z2 equivalent to (x, 3x2 +y 2 ) and hence (x, y 2 ) (under Z2 equivari-
ant coordinate changes in the source and arbitrary coordinate changes in the
target) if and only if a22 a33 a23 a32 6= 0. Furthermore, the torsion of the
2-jet of the curve at t = 0 is given by
1
(0) = a222 +a232
a22 a33 a23 a32 ,
thus using Malgrange preparation theorem we conclude that the secant germ
(x, y 2 ) is equivalent to the condition that that (0) 6= 0.
where L is the length of the given arc , k denotes its affine curvature, the
Euclidean curvature and s is the arc length parameter of . We also show that
the Hausdorff distance between a curve and an optimal conic arc tangent at its
endpoints is increasing with its arc length, provided the affine curvature along
the arc is monotone. This property yields a simple bisection algorithm for the
computation of an optimal parabolic or conic spline. Furthermore, we also
derive the complexity result for approximation of plane curves by parabolic
and conic arcs with respect to the symmetric difference distance. We show
1.5. Overview and main results 29
and is the Euclidean curvature, L length of the arc of the space curve and s
is the arc length parameter. A bihelical spline is composed of bihelical arcs. A
bihelical arc is composed of two helical arcs which are tangent to each other
at the junction point and tangent to the curve at the endpoints. We also
conclude that the expression for complexity of a bihelical spline is the same
as that of biarcs in the planar case. Furthermore, given points p0 , p1 and
tangents T0 , T1 , respectively we show that there exists a unique helical arc
through these points with the given tangents if and only if
hp0 p1 , T0 T1 i = 0.
30 1. Introduction
this classification is relevant for the secant maps germs of generic immersions
X : R2 Rn+1 .