Geometric spline curves (Q1065493)

Recently several modifications of cubic spline interpolants, suitable for purposes of geometric computer aided design, have been proposed. They are solutions of certain variational problems and possess either continuous second derivatives or continuous curvature. In this paper the concept of \(\tau\)-splines is introduced. It contains most of the above mentioned generalizations as well as some splines of polynomial kind with continuous curvature and continuous torsion for curves in \({\mathbb{R}}^ 3\). The approach needs the solutions of a quite general variational problem with flexible parameters. These solutions are given explicitly, permitting the numerical construction of the corresponding geometric spline curves.