H-Walk: Hierarchical Distance Computation for Moving Convex Bodies

This paper presents the Hierarchical Walk, or H-Walk algorithm, which maintains the distance between two moving convex bodies by exploiting both motion coherence and hierarchical representations. For convex polygons, we prove that H-Walk improves on the classic Lin-Canny and DobkinKirkpatrick algorithms. We have implemented H-Walk for moving convex polyhedra in three dimensions. Experimental results indicate that, unlike previous incremental distance computation algorithms, H-Walk adapts well to variable coherence in the motion.

• Type: Conference
• Year: 1999
• Where: COMPGEOM
• Authors: Leonidas J. Guibas, David Hsu, Li Zhang
• Keywords: COMPGEOM 1999, Convex Bodies, Convex Polygons, Discrete Geometry, Motion Coherence