Euclidean offset and bisector approximations of curves over freeform surfaces

Abstract

The computation of offset and bisector curves/surfaces has always been considered a challenging problem in geometric modeling and processing. In this work, we investigate a related problem of approximating offsets of curves on surfaces (OCS) and bisectors of curves on surfaces (BCS). While at times the precise geodesic distance over the surface between the curve and its offset might be desired, herein we approximate the Euclidean distance between the two. The Euclidean distance OCS problem is reduced to a set of under-determined non-linear constraints, and solved to yield a univariate approximated offset curve on the surface. For the sake of thoroughness, we also establish a bound on the difference between the Euclidean offset and the geodesic offset on the surface and show that for a C2 surface with bounded curvature, this difference vanishes as the offset distance is diminished. In a similar way, the Euclidean distance BCS problem is also solved to generate an approximated bisector curve on the surface. We complete this work with a set of examples that demonstrates the effectiveness of our approach to the Euclidean offset and bisector operations.