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In this paper we study Computer Aided Geometric Design (CAGD) and Manufacturing (CAM) of developable surfaces. We develop a direct representation of developable surfaces in terms of plane geometry. It uses control planes to determine a surface which is a Bezier or a B-spline interpolation of the control planes. In the Bezier case, a de Casteljau type construction method is presented for geometric design of developable Bezier surfaces. In the B-spline case, de Boor type construction for the geometric design of the developable surface and Boehm type knot insertion algorithm are presented. In the area of manufacturing or fabrication of developable surfaces, we present simple methods for both development of a surface into a plane and bending of a flat plane into a desired developable surface. The approach presented uses plane and line geometries and eliminates the need for solving differential equations of Riccatti type used in previous methods. The results are illustrated using an example generated by a CAD/CAM system implemented based on the theory presented.

This paper presents an approach to the finite position synthesis of spherical four-bar linkages that unites traditional precision theory with recent results in approximate position synthesis. This approach maps the desired positions to points in an image space, and the motion of the coupler of a spherical four-bar to a curve. The synthesis problem then becomes one of finding the image curve that passes through the given positions (precision position synthesis) or as close as possible (approximate position synthesis), the solution of which is obtained by minimizing the normal distance error. Nonbranching constraints are incorporated into the minimization problem to give the designer control over the type of the linkage synthesized. Numerical examples are presented for five, six, and ten positions.

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Open Access Original Article

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An approach to robot path planning is presented which can be applied to any holonomically constrained mechanical system. The resulting path n composed of an n-dimensional web of stepwise movements along free edges of hypercubes. The main computational function required for the algorithm is the calculation of free intervals for the configuration variables, starting from some initial position. The algorithm is shown to find a path if one exists, and a bound on the level of the search graph required for convergence is presented. The maximum number of computations required for convergence of the algorithm is shown to depend on the amount of h s p a c e surrounding the obstacle-free path.

In this paper we study Computer Aided Geometric Design (CAGD) and Manufacturing (CAM) of developable surfaces. We develop direct representations of developable surfaces in terms of point as well as plane geometries. The point representation uses a Bezier curve, the tangents of which span the surface. The plane representation uses control planes instead of control points and determines a surface which is a Bezier interpolation of the control planes. In this case, a de Casteljau type construction method is presented for geometric design of developable Bezier surfaces. In design of piecewise surface patches, a computational geometric algorithm similar to Farin-Boehm construction used in design of piecewise parametric curves is developed for designing developable surfaces with C2 continuity. In the area of manufacturing or fabrication of developable surfaces, we present simple methods for both development of a surface into a plane and bending of a flat plane into a desired developable surface. The approach presented uses plane and line geometries and eliminates the need for solving differential equations of Riccatti type used in previous methods. The results are illustrated using an example generated by a CAD/CAM system implemented based on the theory presented.