Euclidean and Minkowski Pythagorean hodograph curves over planar cubics (Q2571178)

The authors describe a new construction of Pythagorean hodograph (PH) and Minkowski Pythagorean hodograph (MPH) space curves that correspond with an arbitrary planar cubic curve and satisfy the condition of the first order derivative continuity at a specified common point. In comparison with polynomial curves, PH curves exhibit very useful properties for application -- their arc length is a polynomial function of the parameter and their offset curves are rational curves. In the case of planar cubic, the constructed PH and MPH curves can be used for determination polynomial bounds on the parametrical speed and arc length function and for approximation of offset curve by rational curves. In the article, there are explicit formulae for the gap between lower and upper polynomial bounds for the parametric speed approximation, arc length function and offset approximation derived. The appropriate algorithms are proposed and errors of approximations specified. A characteristic constant -- PH deviation number, which represents the deviation of the given planar cubic and PH curve lying over it, is introduced. The achieved results can be used in many practical design applications, such as numerical control machining, tolerance analysis, etc.