LineUp Computing Chain-Based Physical Transformation

• Published in: ACM transactions on graphics Vol. 38; no. 1; pp. 1 - 16
• Main Authors: Yu, Minjing, Ye, Zipeng, Liu, Yong-Jin, He, Ying, Wang, Charlie C. L.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 28.02.2019
• ISSN: 0730-0301; 1557-7368
• DOI: 10.1145/3269979

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.