Spatial Morphometric Analysis

Morphometry is the quantitative comparison of shapes, primarily curves. As an alternate to classical methods of spatial morphometry, this work investigates a kinematic synthesis methodology for designing a spatial chain of rigid-bodies to match arbitrary spatial curves. The goal is to find a single set of spatial bodies that can be moved to approximately align with any given set of spatial curves. Previous rigid-body shape-change morphometry work focused on mechanisms composed of rigid planar links connected by prismatic and revolute joints to approximate planar curves. Open space curves are the current focus of the research. The primary advantage of this method is its capacity to describe the difference in space curves with a limited number of parameters.