Computing Swept Volumes for Sensor Planning Tasks


Here is a postscript version of this paper. [111 Kb]

ABSTRACT

This paper discusses the computation of the volumes swept by polyhedral objects moving through space and how these volumes can be used for sensor planning in active environments. It presents some new results in the computation of the approximate volumes swept by polyhedral objects as they undergo arbitrary motions. An algorithm is presented which approximates these volumes under a restricted class of motion, along with a discussion of how it can be extended to handle all types of motion. Results computed with this algorithm are also presented. Finally, we discuss methods for guaranteeing that the approximation is within some desired tolerance of the actual surface.