Computing distances between NURBS-defined convex objects

Computing the distance between modelled objects is proving to be a fundamental operation for solving many problems in robotics and elsewhere. Most of the previous work in this area has focused on computing the distance between polyhedra, as the problem is easier to solve than the general case and the answer is sufficient for many problems. Here we focus on computing the distance between convex objects defined by NURBS curves or patches, for which the critical step is the evaluation of the support mapping. Experimental results are given for the two-dimensional case.