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Problems

  1. Consider an implicit surface where is a polynomial in . Consider the cube and the part of the surface inside this cube. The surface can be written in the Bernstein basis as
         

    Show the following properties.
    1. The point is on the surface if and only if . What happens when for all ?

    2. Assuming the condition of question is true, a necessary and sufficient condition for the normal vector of surface at to be parallel to axis is that .

    3. If or if for all then there is no piece of the surface in the cube under consideration.

    4. Consider a cube adjacent to the cube . Within the new cube define another implicit polynomial surface of the same degrees in as . Determine the conditions for the two surfaces to be position continuous at the common face of the two cubes.

    5. Following the condition of question , determine the conditions for the two surfaces to be tangent plane continuous at the common face of the two cubes.

  2. Show that the derivative of a Bézier curve (also called hodograph) of the form:
         

    is given by:
         

    Sketch a cubic Bézier curve and its hodograph and their control polygons.

  3. The degree elevation formula for Bézier curves of degree is given (1.54). Describe a process for approximating a Bézier curve of degree with a Bézier curve of degree using (1.54) reversely.

  4. Show how an explicit polynomial curve , where can be converted into a Bézier curve. Provide the control points of the resulting Bézier curve. And show how an explicit polynomial surface z = f(x,y), where and can be converted into a Bézier patch and provide its control points. Extend this to an explicit B-spline patch and provide its control points.

  5. Given a planar B-spline curve in the plane with a non-uniform knot vector, the control polygon of which is symmetric with respect to the y-axis, find if the curve is also symmetric about the y-axis.

  6. What kind of curve is the result of a perspective projection of an integral B-spline curve?

  7. Consider the arc of the hyperbola for and revolve it around the axis by , to obtain the quadrant of a surface of revolution, within the first octant of the coordinate system . Express the resulting patch in terms of a rational biquadratic parametric Bézier surface patch.

  8. Examine what happens to a cubic B-spline curve in which two, three, or four consecutive vertices, of its control polygon are coincident.

  9. Examine what might happen when a rational B-spline curve given by (1.87) or a rational Bézier curve given by (1.88) has weights some of which are positive and some are negative. Examine the validity of the properties of the rational B-spline or rational Bézier curves in such cases.

  10. Make plots of the B-spline basis functions of the following order (degree ) and knot vector T:

  11. Given a list of Cartesian points in 3-D space which represent a non-periodic curve, construct a cubic Bézier curve using least squares approximation of the points. Also, construct a cubic B-spline curve with non-uniform knots using least squares approximation of these points. A user should be able to access your program with an arbitrary number of points and coordinates of points. Include a simple visualization of the results.

  12. A cubic planar Bézier curve:
         

    has the following control points
         

    A designer decides to subdivide (split) the curve at and in order to be able to modify the curve in the interval and generate a particular shape feature required by his design.

    1. Compute the coordinates of the control points of the three curve segments generated by the above subdivision.

    2. After the above subdivision, the middle segment of the three curve segments created by subdivision is permitted to be modified by changing the coordinates of its control points. Determine the conditions that the control points must obey so that this curve segment maintains position continuity at its ends with the end and the beginning of the other two curve segments.

    3. Assuming position continuity is maintained as in (b), determine the additional necessary conditions to maintain unit tangent vector continuity at the ends of the middle curve segment.

    4. Assuming conditions (b) and (c) are satisfied, determine the coordinates of the vertices of the polygonal boundary of the convex hull of the middle curve segment. You need to distinguish several special cases.
  13. Derive the monomial or power basis form of curve of Problem 12 prior to any subdivision.
  14. Derive the (uniform) B-spline form of curve of Problem 12 prior to any subdivision. Make a plot of the curve together with its Bézier and B-spline polygon illustrating the principal features of the curve (such as tangencies at the ends etc.). Compare the convex hulls of the curve in the Bézier and the B-spline form in terms of the area they enclose (i.e. determine the ratio of the two areas).

  15. We are given a degree (2-1) integral Bézier surface patch
         

    where the control points are
     
     
     

    1. Subdivide the surface patch into two patches by the iso-parametric curve and compute the resulting control points of the two patches.
    2. Consider the boundary curve of the patch . Provide a tight upper bound for the maximum deviation of the curve in the interval to the straight line passing via and for a fixed value of , where is a fixed positive integer.
      1. Show that the given integral Bézier surface is a developable surface.
      2. Are there any umbilics on this patch?
  16. Consider a curve , for on a hyperbolic paraboloid where .
    1. Compute the arc length of the curve on the hyperbolic paraboloid for .
    2. Compute the area of a region of the hyperbolic paraboloid bounded by positive axis, and a parabola .

  17. Consider a torus parametrized as follows:
         

    where and . Derive appropriate formulae for the Gauss, mean and principal curvatures. Sketch the torus and subdivide it into hyperbolic, parabolic and elliptic regions. In a follow-up sketch illustrate the lines of curvature of the torus. Explain the above subdivision and sketches.

  18. Show that the curvature of a planar curve is independent of the parametrization. Namely, if
         

    is the curve, then a change of variables
         

    does not affect the curvature.

  19. Write a one-dimensional nonlinear polynomial solver based on Projected Polyhedron algorithm. Use the solver to compute the roots of the degree 20 Wilkinson polynomial with different tolerances and discuss robustness issues.

  20. Convert an explicit curve ( ) into a cubic Bézier curve.
  21. Convert the following height function
         

    into a bicubic Bézier patch.

  22. Compute the characteristic points of the following curve
         

    and trace it.

  23. Consider the intersection curve of a surface defined in Problem 15 with the plane .
    1. Derive an implicit equation for this intersection curve in the parameter space . Find the characteristic points of this curve, (border, turning, and singular points).
    2. Express this intersection curve as an explicit curve in the parameter space. Indicate the resulting type and degree of this curve. Sketch this curve in the parameter space .
    3. Prove that the above intersection curve is a planar rational Bézier parametric curve of degree 4 in 3D space. Indicate how you would compute its control points (but do not carry out the algebra).

  24. Consider the following curves:
         

    and
         

    where denotes the th cubic Bernstein polynomial and , , , .

    1. Compute all turning and singular points of to the highest possible accuracy, as well as the tangent lines at all these points.

    2. Using the results of (a) as a guide, sketch . Clearly indicate the turning and singular points on your sketch.

    3. Compute the intersections of the two curves given above to the highest possible accuracy. In addition to giving the Cartesian coordinates of the intersection points, also include the parameter values of the points and their multiplicity.

  25. Write a program which determines all intersections of two integral planar Bézier curves of arbitrary degrees and as accurately as possible, given the control points of the two curves. Your program should report the parametric values of the intersection points as well as the Cartesian coordinates. Give four examples to show how your program works.

  26. The following three planar curves are given by:
    1. Implicit curve,
    2. Cubic Bézier curve where and with , , ,
    3. Cubic Bézier curve where and with , , ,
    1. Compute the characteristic points of the first curve in the rectangle [-5,5] [-5,5] and trace it within the same rectangle.

    2. Compute the intersections of the first and second curves, and the second the third curves to the highest possible accuracy, and identify their multiplicity.

    3. Obtain a parametrization of the first curve in terms of rational polynomials using the transform . Illustrate and for all real . Is this a good parametrization for computer implementation (e.g. tracing of the curve) near ? Can you suggest better parametrizations for the curve piece in the first quadrant.

  27. Compute the intersection curve between the bicubic Bézier patch of Problem 21 and a plane . Evaluate the curvature of the intersection curve at .

  28. Give the implicit polynomial equation of a torus whose section circle has radius 2, and whose center circle has radius 4 using the implicitization of a surface of revolution. Assume the torus is situated so that it is centered at the origin and the center circle lies entirely in the -plane. Using the implicit equation, compute all intersections of the torus with the cubic Bézier curve having control points . Give both the Cartesian coordinates of the intersection points and their associated parameter values on the Bézier curve. Indicate which method you used to solve this problem, and give all answers to at least 5 significant digits.

  29. Compute the minimum distance between a point (0.8, 0.7, 0.2) and an iso-parametric line of the bicubic Bézier patch of Problem 21. Also compute the minimum distance between the point and the bicubic patch.

  30. Consider two planar Bézier curves which are cubic and quadric with control points: (0,0), (1, 1), (2,1), (3,0) and (0,1), ( , -1), ( , 5), ( , -1), (3,0), respectively. Compute all stationary points of their squared distance function and classify them appropriately into extrema etc. Identify the corresponding Euclidean distances, find the points of intersection of the two curves and the angles between the tangents of the two curves at the intersection points.

  31. Consider an ellipsoid of revolution given by (3.81) with = =1, =2 and a cubic planar Bézier curve with control points (0,1, -2), (0,0, -1), (0,0,1), (0,1,2) on the =0 plane. Compute the stationary points of the squared distance function between the ellipsoid and the curve, classify them into extrema etc. Identify the corresponding Euclidean distances, find the points of intersection and the angles between the surface normals and the Bézier curve tangents at the intersection points.

  32. Find the stationary points of the squared distance function between the plane z=0 and the wave-like Bézier surface patch of the example in Sect. 8.5.4 and Fig. 8.11. Classify the points into extrema etc., identify the corresponding distances, and determine the intersections of the two surfaces. Compare the locations of the above extrema with the locations of the various curvature extrema in Sect. 8.5.4.

  33. Consider a torus generated by revolving the circle around the axis by a full revolution. Determine the stationary points of the squared distance function between this torus and a) a plane , b) a plane , c) a plane , d) a sphere with center the origin and radius and e) a sphere with center the origin and radius .

  34. Consider a biquadratic Bezier surface patch whose boundary eight control points are coplanar so that the boundary curves form a square on the plane. The boundary non-corner control points are in the middle of the corresponding boundary edges. The central control point of the patch has coordinates ( , , ) where . Determine the surface unit normal vector at the four corners, and at the center, and the extrema of the Gauss, mean and principal curvatures and any umbilics as a function of and illustrate this for , 1, 10, 100. Sketch the lines of curvature of the surface patch for these four values of .

  35. Find the range of mean curvature of a hyperbolic paraboloid , (bilinear surface), and plot four levels of contour lines of mean curvature in the -parameter space.

  36. Given an implicit surface = 0, formulate the problem of tracing the lines of curvature and develop an algorithm to do this. Test the resulting implementation for various standard algebraic surfaces (quadrics, torii, cyclides).

  37. Given an implicit algebraic surface = 0, formulate the problem of locating the umbilics of the surface (within a given rectangular box with faces parallel to the coordinate planes).

  38. Consider an ellipsoid where .
    1. Show that umbilics are located at .
    2. Show that the patterns of the four umbilics are of the lemon type.

  39. Consider a degree (3-1) integral Bézier surface
         

    where
    = , = ,
    = , = ,
    = , = ,
    = , = .
    1. Show that the Bézier surface is a developable surface.
    2. Is there an inflection line? If so, find the parameter which contains the inflection.

  40. Derive differential equations for geodesics (10.17) - (10.20) on a parametric surface using Euler's equation (10.24).

  41. Write a program which solves differential equations for geodesics (10.17) - (10.20) as a boundary value problem using a shooting method on a parametric surface.

  42. For the surface patch of Problem 34 compute the geodesics between two diagonally opposite corners for various values of . How do these geodesics change as changes from 0 to large positive values, e.g. in the interval [0,100]. What do you expect in the limit tends to plus infinity?

  43. Let be a planar, closed and convex curve ( e.g. a circle, an ellipse, etc.) where the arc length varies in the range so that the length of the curve is . Let

    be its offset curve, where is a positive distance and is the unit normal vector of the curve defined by (see convention (b) of (2.24) in Table 3.2.)

    1. Show that the total length of the curve exceeds the total length of the curve by .

    2. Show that the area enclosed between the two curves is given by .

    3. Show that the curvatures of the two curves are related by

      where is the curvature of and is the curvature of the offset curve .

    4. Verify your results for questions a to c for a circle of radius .

  44. This problem focuses on the identification of cusps, extraordinary points and self-intersections of offsets of planar curves (use convention (b) of (2.24) for the normal vector in Table 3.2.). Consider the ellipse or and its offset at ``distance'' , where is any real number.

    1. Determine all the values of for which there can be an extraordinary point on some offset of the ellipse and the values of at such points. Sketch the offsets at all such values of .

    2. For what range of values of , are offsets of the ellipse regular curves? Sketch a few such offset curves.

    3. Determine a specific offset of the ellipse which includes several cusps and self-intersections but no extraordinary points. Infinite such cases exist. Give the parameter values and coordinates of these cusps and self-intersections. (Hint: Notice that self-intersections are on the axes of symmetry of the ellipse.)

  45. Consider the planar cubic integral Bezier curve with control points , and . The offset of at a distance is given by

    where denotes the normal to at the point defined by (see convention (b) of (2.24) in Table 3.2). Here is called the progenitor of .

    1. For values of between 0 and some critical value , the offset curve resembles its progenitor. At , however, the offset exhibits a cusp at a parameter value because . Compute the values of and .

    2. Sketch the progenitor curve, and two offset curves, one at a distance of and one at a distance of around .

  46. The evolute of a planar curve is the curve of its center of curvature. Show that cusps and extraordinary points of the offset lie on the evolute. Illustrate the concept by examining the superbola , , . Draw the curve, its evolute, and several offsets with offset distance, , , , , (all on the concave side).

  47. Consider a pocket to be machined, bounded by the following four curves:
    1) , , ,
    2) ,
    3) Two circular blends of the first and second curves with radius, .

    1. Construct an approximation of the medial axis (skeleton) of the pocket in terms of a set of linear spline curves. The skeleton is the set of points inside the shape with two or more nearest points on the boundary of the shape. The skeleton branches potentially start at the curvature centers corresponding to points of maximum curvature of the boundary. Next, you may specify the skeleton by writing differential equations relating the tangent vector of the skeleton to known functions. For simplicity, write these equations for the specific example. Integrate these differential equations using the Runge-Kutta method.

    2. Assuming you have cylindrical cutters with radii: 0.25, 0.5, 0.75, , 2, describe an efficient method to accurately machine the pocket.

  48. Write a program which approximates an offset curve of a planar rational curve following the algorithm developed by Tiller and Hanson [421].

  49. Give the implicit polynomial equation of a torus with axis in the direction (0,0,1), center circle radius and section circle radius where . What is the equation of the offset of this torus by , .

  50. A pipe surface or canal surface of spheres of constant radius is defined as the envelope of a family of spheres of constant radius whose centers describe a smooth curve, c(t) known as the spine. Let , where

    1. Show that the canal surface has an implicit equation which results from eliminating from the two equations and .

    2. Obtain the implicit equation of a torus by using the approach of part a).

    3. Show that canal surfaces can be obtained as generalized cylinders by sweeping a circular cross-section along the spine.

  51. In this problem we consider developing a blending surface between the plane and the right circular cylinder . Because the cylinder is a surface of revolution, we will, for simplicity, consider the cross-section of the objects obtained by setting . Our problem is to develop a smooth surface between the cylinder and the plane by creating a cross-section curve starting at height 1 on the cylinder and terminating on the plane 2 units away from the origin.

    1. As a first effort, consider using a quadratic Bezier curve (i.e. a parabola) as a blend cross-section. The curve should have the starting and ending points as indicated above, and to ensure a smooth blend, the tangent to the curve at the start (end) point should have the same direction as the tangent to the cylinder (plane). Give the control points of this curve.

    2. Using the results of part a), express the blending surface (i.e. the surface of revolution characterized by the cross section obtained in a) as rational B-spline (NURBS) surface.

    3. Now suppose we want a cubic Bezier curve as the cross-section of our blending surface. Give the control points of a cubic Bezier curve which generates a ``good'' blend. To be ``good'', the curve not only has to satisfy the boundary conditions indicated in part (a), but also the area under the curve should be between and .

    4. Now suppose we want to maintain curvature continuity at the blending surface linkage curves in addition to position and tangent plane continuity. Determine a sufficiently high degree Bezier curve cross section to accomplish this.



Next: A. Color Plates Up: Shape Interrogation for Computer Previous: 11.6.3.4 A necessary and   Contents   Index
December 2009