Hodograph computation and bound estimation for rational B-spline curves

Abstract

Abstract It is necessary to compute the derivative and estimate the bound of rational B-spline curves in design system, which has not been studied to date. To improve the function of computer aided design (CAD) system, and to enhance the efficiency of different algorithms of rational B-spline curves, the representation of scaled hodograph and bound of derivative magnitude of uniform planar rational B-spline curves are derived by applying Dir function, which indicates the direction of Cartesian vector between homogeneous points, discrete B-spline theory and the formula of translating the product into a summation of B-spline functions. As an application of the result above, upper bound of parametric distance between any two points in a uniform planar rational B-spline curve is further presented. *Supported by the National Program on Key Basic Research Projects (Grant No.2004CB719400), and National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos.60673031, 60333010)