Determination of the minimum bounding box of an arbitrary solid: an iterative approach

This paper describes a method for determining the minimum oriented bounding box of an arbitrary solid. The method simplifies a complex three-dimension al problem by projecting the solid onto the three principal planes and make s use of the projected contours for analysis. The orientations of the conto urs are determined by rotating them within a specific angle range. These or ientations are then used to approximate the orientation of the solid so tha t its bounding box volume is minimized. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.