LineUp : computing chain-based physical transformation

• Main Authors: Yu, Minjing, Ye, Zipeng, Liu, Yong-Jin, He, Ying, Wang, Charlie Chang Ling
• Other Authors: School of Computer Science and Engineering
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: 2020
• Subjects: Engineering::Computer science and engineering; Computing Methodologies; Computing Graphics
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/144752
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

In this article, we introduce a novel method that can generate a sequence of physical transformations between 3D models with different shape and topology. Feasible transformations are realized on a chain structure with connected components that are 3D printed. Collision-free motions are computed to transform between different configurations of the 3D printed chain structure. To realize the transformation between different 3D models, we first voxelize these input models into a similar number of voxels. The challenging part of our approach is to generate a simple path—as a chain configuration to connect most voxels. A layer-based algorithm is developed with theoretical guarantee of the existence and the path length. We find that collision-free motion sequence can always be generated when using a straight line as the intermediate configuration of transformation. The effectiveness of our method is demonstrated by both the simulation and the experimental tests taken on 3D printed chains.