Fitting NURBS using separable least squares techniques

Abstract

We consider the problem of fitting a non-uniform rational B-spline (NURBS) curve to a set of data points by determining the control points and the weights using techniques aimed for solving separable least squares problems. The main technique under consideration is the variable projection method which utilises that the NURBS model depends linearly on its control points but non-linearly on the weights. The variable projection method can be used with the Gauss-Newton algorithm but also with Newton’s algorithm. We investigate the efficiency of the different algorithms when fitting NURBS and observe that the variable projection methods do not perform as well as reported for its use on, e.g., exponential fitting problems.