An orthonormal frame (f1,f2,f3) is rotation-minimizing with respect to fi if its angular velocity ω satisfies ω×fi≡0 - or, equivalently, the derivatives of fj and fk are both parallel to fi. The Frenet frame (t,p,b) along a space curve is rotation-minimizing with respect to the principal normal p, and in recent years adapted frames that are rotation-minimizing with respect to the tangent t have attracted much interest. This study is concerned with rotation-minimizing osculating frames (f,g,b) incorporating the binormal b, and osculating-plane vectors f, g that have no rotation about b. These frame vectors may be defined through a rotation of t, p by an angle equal to minus the integral of curvature with respect to arc length. In aeronautical terms, the rotation-minimizing osculating frame (RMOF) specifies yaw-free rigid-body motion along a curved path. For polynomial space curves possessing rational Frenet frames, the existence of rational RMOFs is investigated, and it is found that they must be of degree 7 at least. The RMOF is also employed to construct a novel type of ruled surface, with the property that its tangent planes coincide with the osculating planes of a given space curve, and its rulings exhibit the least possible rate of rotation consistent with this constraint. © 2013 Elsevier B.V.

The blending or filleting of sharp corners is a common requirement in geometric design applications — motivated by aesthetic, ergonomic, kinematic, or mechanical stress considerations. Corner blending curves are usually required to exhibit a specified order of geometric continuity with the segments they connect, and to satisfy specific constraints on their curvature profiles and the extremum deviation from the original corner. The free parameters of polynomial corner curves of degree ≤6 and continuity up to G3 are exploited to solve a convex optimization problem, that minimizes a weighted sum of dimensionless measures of the mid-point curvature, maximum deviation, and the uniformity of parametric speed. It is found that large mid-point curvature weights result in undesirable bimodal curvature profiles, but emphasizing the parametric speed uniformity typically yields good corner shapes (since the curvature is strongly dependent upon parametric speed variation). A constrained optimization problem, wherein a particular value of the corner curve deviation is specified, is also addressed. Finally, the shape of Pythagorean-hodograph corner curves is compared with that of the optimized “ordinary” polynomial corner curves.

The clothoid is a planar curve with the intuitive geometrical property of a linear variation of the curvature with arc length, a feature that is important in many geometric design applications. However, the exact parameterization of the clothoid is defined in terms of the irreducible Fresnel integrals, which are computationally expensive to evaluate and incompatible with the polynomial/rational representations employed in computer aided geometric design. Consequently, applications that seek to exploit the simple curvature variation of the clothoid must rely on approximations that satisfy a prescribed tolerance. In the present study, we investigate the use of planar Pythagorean-hodograph (PH) curves as polynomial approximants to monotone clothoid segments, based on geometric Hermite interpolation of end points, tangents, and curvatures, and precise matching of the clothoid segment arc length. The construction, employing PH curves of degree 7, involves iterative solution of a system of five algebraic equations in five real unknowns. This is achieved by exploiting a closed-form solution to the problem of interpolating the specified data (except the curvatures) using quintic PH curves, to determine starting values that ensure rapid and accurate convergence to the desired solution.

In the construction and analysis of a planar Pythagorean–hodograph (PH) quintic curve r(t), t∈[0,1] using the complex representation, it is convenient to invoke a translation/rotation/scaling transformation so r(t) is in canonical form with r(0)=0, r(1)=1 and possesses just two complex degrees of freedom. By choosing two of the five control–polygon legs of a quintic PH curve as these free complex parameters, the remaining three control–polygon legs can be expressed in terms of them and the roots of a quadratic or quartic equation. Consequently, depending on the chosen two control–polygon legs, there exist either two or four distinct quintic PH curves that are consistent with them. A comprehensive analysis of all possible pairs of chosen control polygon legs is developed, and examples are provided to illustrate this control–polygon paradigm for the construction of planar quintic PH curves.

The construction of tensor-product surface patches with a family of Pythagorean-hodograph (PH) isoparametric curves is investigated. The simplest nontrivial instances, interpolating four prescribed patch boundary curves, involve degree (5,4) tensor-product surface patches x(u,v) whose v=constant isoparametric curves are all spatial PH quintics. It is shown that the construction can be reduced to solving a novel type of quadratic quaternion equation, in which the quaternion unknown and its conjugate exhibit left and right coefficients, while the quadratic term has a coefficient interposed between them. A closed-form solution for this type of equation is derived, and conditions for the existence of solutions are identified. The surfaces incorporate three residual scalar freedoms which can be exploited to improve the interior shape of the patch. The implementation of the method is illustrated through a selection of computed examples.