Constrained B-spline curve and surface fitting (Q1263222)

The authors note that in determining the knot points of B-splines from data points for curves and surfaces by the least squares method, i.e. by solving the normal linear equations, one may add linear constraints on the knot points without changing the procedure. The reason for this procedure is that least squares B-spline representations of the surface of ship hulls are no good since the present unacceptable wiggles. With the knot points forced to lie in a plane, the wiggles becomes worse but interactive modification becomes easier to control.