Gliding spline motions and applications

We consider the ICP (iterative closest point) algorithm, which may in general be used for moving ‘active’ elements such as curves and surfaces towards geometric objects whose distance field is computable. We show how it may be accelerated, and how it can be applied to the design of near-Euclidean near-contact spline motions. One particular application of this concept is the modeling of milling tool paths in five-axis milling. The method involves computing the distance from and footpoints in both the Euclidean motion group and the configuration space of surface-surface contact.  2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.