On the approximation order of a space data-dependent PH quintic Hermite interpolation scheme

Dealing with Pythagorean Hodograph quintic Hermite interpolation in the space, we deepen the analysis of the so-called CC criterion proposed in Farouki et al. (2008) for fixing the two free angular parameters characterizing the set of possible solutions, which remarkably influence the shape of the chosen interpolant. Such criterion is easy to implement, guarantees the reproduction of the standard cubic Hermite interpolant when it is a PH curve and usually allows the selection of interpolants with good shape. Here we first rigorously prove that the PH interpolant it selects doesn't depend on the unit pure vector chosen for representing its hodograph in quaternion form. Then we evaluate the corresponding interpolation scheme from a theoretical point of view, proving with the help of symbolic computation that it has fourth approximation order. A selection of experiments related to the spline implementation of the method confirms our analysis. (c) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

Smooth path planning with Pythagorean-hodoghraph spline curves geometric design and motion control

This thesis addresses two significative problems regarding autonomous systems, namely path and trajectory planning. Path planning deals with finding a suitable path from a start to a goal position by exploiting a given representation of the environment. Trajectory planning schemes govern the motion along the path by generating appropriate reference (path) points. We propose a two-step approach for the construction of planar smooth collision-free navigation paths. Obstacle avoidance techniques that rely on classical data structures are initially considered for the identification of piecewise linear paths that do not intersect with the obstacles of a given scenario. In the second step of the scheme we rely on spline interpolation algorithms with tension parameters to provide a smooth planar control strategy. In particular, we consider Pythagorean–hodograph (PH) curves, since they provide an exact computation of fundamental geometric quantities. The vertices of the previously produced piecewise linear paths are interpolated by using a G1 or G2 interpolation scheme with tension based on PH splines. In both cases, a strategy based on the asymptotic analysis of the interpolation scheme is developed in order to get an automatic selection of the tension parameters. To completely describe the motion along the path we present a configurable trajectory planning strategy for the offline definition of time-dependent C2 piece-wise quintic feedrates. When PH spline curves are considered, the corresponding accurate and efficient CNC interpolator algorithms can be exploited