Patent Document ID: 20080201114
Application ID: 11917519
Patent Status: 0

Claim One:
1. A method for the simplified, physically correct representation of flexible elongate volume objects, characterized in that the respective volume object is subdivided into sections, each section beginning and ending with an interaction point, and being connected to the neighboring section via this point, in that each interaction point has six degrees of freedom, it being possible for the latter to be optionally permanently prescribed or freely defined for a fastening point, in that the physical properties of the sections are defined by three-dimensional rasterized position data of a real volume body that reflect the plastic properties, the flexural strength, the stress force, and the linear density, in that the data that reflect the physical properties of the sections are interpolated taking account of the torsional moment and, optionally, also of the gravity vector, the experimental values of the model function r → ( t ) = ∑ i c i r → i ( t ) C i being coefficients of the selected fastening points, r i (t) being equal to partial results of the linear differential equation, in which case B represents flexural strength M represents torsional moment {right arrow over (n)} represents normal vector that points from the start to the end of the elongate flexible volume object, T represents the stress force, μ represents the linear density or mass per unit length, and {right arrow over (g)} represents the gravity vector, in that the interpolated values specify the position of the center line of the elongate volume object, in that the merged data of the individual sections yield the position of the center line of the overall object, and in that the determined course of the elongate volume object deviates from the real course by no more than 2%.