Processing of Point-based Models for Toolpath Generation

As scanning devices have become popular recently, there is a trend to use points as the modeling element in graphics systems. To handle point sets, current CAD/CAM systems use a reverse engineering approach which is tedious and not automatic. This project aims at developing algorithms that process point sets to generate boundary-conformed toolpath, which is a new technique investigated by the PI recently. The major challenge in this research is that existing algorithms work mainly on the parametric domain of surfaces whereas a surface and the parametric domain do not exist in a point set. New algorithms that process point sets for curve offsetting, self-intersecting loops removal and bisector generation will be investigated. The outcome of this project will be a key technology that enables the incorporation of point-based modeling into current CAD/CAM systems so that products represented by point sets can be passed on directly to the manufacturing process.