A General Theory for Positioning and Orienting 2D Polygonal or Curved Parts using Intelligent Motion Surfaces

: In this paper we present novel algorithms to compute quasi-static and dynamic equilibrium positions and orientations (if any) of 2D polygonal or curved parts placed on general shaped 2D force field configurations. Instead of following the current limited approaches of trying to reduce the problem to a geometrical problem of symmetry, we pursued a solution to this difficult problem in a totally new and ground breaking direction. On the theoretical side, the novelty of our approach is that it puts into practice a fundamental result of piecewise-linear topology - the simplicial approximation theorem - and suggests an implementation using tools and techniques borrowed from modern computational geometry.

• Type: Conference
• Year: 1998
• Where: ICRA
• Authors: Murilo G. Coutinho, Peter M. Will
• Keywords: Dynamic Equilibrium Positions, Force Field Configurations, ICRA 1998, Robotics, Simplicial Approximation Theorem