Interpolation of Hermite data by clamped Minkowski Pythagorean hodograph B-spline curves

In this paper, the problem of Hermite interpolation by clamped Minkowski Pythagorean hodograph (MPH) B-spline curves is considered. Using the properties of B-splines, our intention is to use the MPH curves of degrees lower than in algorithms designed before. Special attention is devoted to C-1/C-2 Hermite interpolation by MPH B-spline cubics/quintics. The resulting interpolants are obtained by exploiting properties of B-spline basis functions and via solving special quadratic and linear equations in Clifford algebra Cl-2,Cl-1. All the presented algorithms are purely symbolic. The results are confirmed by several applications, in particular we use them to generate an approximate conversion of a given analytic curve to MPH B-spline curve with a high order of approximation, then to an efficient approximation of the medial axis transform of a planar domain leading to NURBS representation of the (trimmed) offsets of the domain boundaries, and to skinning of systems of circles in plane. (C) 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.