Special Issue of the Journal of Computer-Aided Design
Robustness issues in geometric and solid modeling
Guest Editor: Prof. Nicholas M. Patrikalakis
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

Deadline for submission of full papers: 15 July 1999
Deadline for final revised papers: 8 November 1999
Expected publication: March 2000 (tentative)

Despite advances in geometric and solid modeling, robustness remains an obstacle to the success of CAD/CAM and other computer-integrated systems. Robustness requires that modeling operations always result in answers acceptable by certain standards. A major reason for lack of robustness in geometric and solid modeling lies in the fact that the computer has limited precision. Geometries are thus represented in a discrete domain, and geometric computations are practically conducted in a grid of points where approximation is unavoidable. This causes severe problems in areas such as model representations which require the consistency between symbolic and numerical data, and geometric computations involving degeneracies.

We invite papers reporting new results on robustness issues in geometric and solid modeling. Suggested topics include (but are not limited to):

  1. Topological consistency
  2. Geometric consistency
  3. Floating point, interval, lazy, and rational arithmetic issue
  4. Fuzzy geometric models
  5. Robust geometric processing (symbolic methods, polynomial solvers, intersections, meshing, etc.)
  6. Geometric algorithm behavior under uncertain input
  7. Error analysis of geometric algorithms
  8. Complexity of robust geometric algorithms
  9. Robustness issues in data exchange

All papers will be refereed. Papers of an appropriate standard which are not included in the special issue for any reason may be considered for publication in a regular issue of Computer-Aided Design.

For information about preparation of their manuscripts, authors should consult the ``Notes for Authors'', which are printed inside the back cover of most issues of Computer-Aided Design. Please note especially the requirement for authors' biographies and photographs, and for a statement that the paper has not been submitted elsewhere. For this special issue, electronic submission of each manuscript is preferred (either in the .ps or .pdf form).


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