ROTATIONAL AND HELICAL SURFACE APPROXIMATION FOR REVERSE ENGINEERING

Given a surface in 3-space or scattered points from a surface, we inve stigate the problem of deciding whether the data may be fitted well by a cylindrical surface, a surface of revolution or a helical surface. Furthermore, we show how to compute an approximating surface and put s pecial emphasis to basic shapes used in computer aided design. The alg orithms apply methods of line geometry to the set of surface normals i n combination with techniques of numerical approximation. The presente d results possess applications in reverse engineering and computer aid ed manufacturing.