PLANAR G(2) CURVE DESIGN WITH SPIRAL SEGMENTS

Spiral segments are useful in the design of fair curves. Recent work d emonstrated the composition of G(2) curves from planar cubic and Pytha gorean hodograph quintic spiral segments. Practical cases that arise i n the use of such spiral segments for computer-aided design are now ex plored. This paper describes an extension to additional cases of the t echnique far drawing with Bezier spiral segments that match the positi on, tangent and curvature of the end of another segment, to additional cases. The advantage of this technique is its control of the curvatur e and inflection points of a designed curve. The benefit of using such curves in the design of surfaces, in particular surfaces of revolutio n and swept surfaces, is the control of unwanted flat spots and undula tions. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.