Configuration products and quotients in geometric modeling

The six-dimensional space SE(3) is traditionally associated with the space of configurations of a rigid solid (a subset of Euclidean three-dimensional space R3). But a solid itself can be also considered to be a set of configurations, and therefore a subset of SE(3). This observation removes the artificial distinction between shapes and their configurations, and allows formulation and solution of a large class of problems in mechanical design and manufacturing. In particular, the configuration product of two subsets of configuration space is the set of all configurations obtained when one of the sets is transformed by all configurations of the other. The usual definitions of various sweeps, Minkowski sum, and other motion related operations are then realized as projections of the configuration product intoR3. Similarly, the dual operation of configuration quotient subsumes the more common operations of unsweep and Minkowski difference.We identify the formal properties of these operations that are instrumental in formulating and solving both direct and inverse problems in computer aided design and manufacturing. Finally, we show that all required computations may be approximated using a fast parallel sampling method on a GPU and provide error estimates for the approximation. © 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.