Approximation of surfaces by cylinders

✍ Scribed by Thomas Randrup

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1998
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 737 KB
• Volume: 30
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0010-4485
• DOI: 10.1016/s0010-4485(98)00038-4

✦ Synopsis

We present a new method for approximation of a given surface by a cylinder surface. It is a constructive geometric method, leading to a monorail representation of the cylinder surface. By use of the Gaussian image of the given surface, we determine a projection plane. In the orthogonal projection of the surface onto this plane, a reference curve is determined by use of methods for thinning of binary images. Finally, the cylinder surface is constructed as follows: the directrix of the cylinder surface is determined by a least squares method minimizing the distance to the points in the projection within a tolerance given by the reference curve, and the rulings are lines perpendicular to the projection plane. An application of the method in ship design is given.