An Artificial Potential Field Method of Calculating Minimum Distance between NURBS Surfaces

A novel algorithm to calculate minimum distance between NURBS surfaces is proposed with the combination of artificial potential field method and Verlet algorithm.The minimum distance between equilibrium positions obtained via the Verlet algorithm can be determined,while the boundary problems can be addressed by artificial potential field（APF）.The algorithm is extended to calculate minimum distances between points,NURBS curves or surfaces,and simulation results demonstrate its generalization,robustness and high performance.