A Computational Framework for Boundary Representation of Solid Sweeps

Abstract: This paper proposes a robust algorithmic and computational framework to address the problem of modeling the volume obtained by sweeping a solid along a trajectory of rigid motions. The boundary representation (simply brep) of the input solid naturally induces a brep of the swept volume. We show that it is locally similar to the input brep and this serves as the basis of the framework. All the same, it admits several intricacies: (i) geometric, in terms of parametrizations and, (ii) topological, in terms of orientations. We provide a novel analysis for their resolution. More specifically, we prove a non-trivial lifting theorem which allows to locally orient the output using the orientation of the input. We illustrate the framework by providing many examples from a pilot implementation.