Journals / Journal of Engineering Technology and Applied Sciences / 2026 / Cilt: 11

Fitting a Closed Curve to Unordered Planar Points

Sırasız Düzlemsel Noktalara Kapalı Bir Eğri Uydurma

Sinan Kapcak(Eindhoven University of Technology)0000-0002-7171-9499
Pages
65–90
Publication Date
2026-09-12
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AI Summary & Key Takeaways

AI Insight
⚡ TL;DR(Too Long; Didn't Read)

The method is effective for planar point clouds that admit an approximate star-shaped structure.

📌 3 Key Takeaways

🎯
Objective & Hypothesis:Fitting smooth closed curves to unordered planar point clouds arises in various applications, including shape reconstruction, image processing, geometric modelling, and computational geometry.
📊
Key Findings & Data:The method combines a deterministic centre-selection strategy with a trigonometric least-squares approximation of the radial function.
💡
Conclusion & Impact:The method is effective for planar point clouds that admit an approximate star-shaped structure.
🔬Design:Modeling & Simulation
📍Scope:Comprehensive Sample
⚙️Variables:eğri uydurma · sırasız düzlemsel nokta · kapalı eğri

Abstract

Fitting smooth closed curves to unordered planar point clouds arises in various applications, including shape reconstruction, image processing, geometric modelling, and computational geometry. We propose a numerical framework for this problem under an approximate star-shaped assumption. The method combines a deterministic centre-selection strategy with a trigonometric least-squares approximation of the radial function. By minimising a radial ambiguity functional, an interior centre is identified to enable a well-defined polar representation without point ordering or neighbourhood reconstruction. A truncated Fourier series is then fitted to obtain a smooth periodic parametric curve. In contrast to approaches that require point ordering, neighbourhood reconstruction, or nonlinear optimisation, the proposed framework reduces the two-dimensional fitting problem to a one-dimensional least-squares approximation in the radial coordinate, resulting in a smooth analytic representation obtained through a linear and computationally efficient procedure. Accuracy is evaluated using normalised RMSE and maximum point-to-curve deviation. Experiments on a 250-point unstructured dataset and on invariant curves arising from dynamical systems demonstrate accurate approximation with moderate Fourier order. The method is effective for planar point clouds that admit an approximate star-shaped structure.

Özet

Fitting smooth closed curves to unordered planar point clouds arises in various applications, including shape reconstruction, image processing, geometric modelling, and computational geometry. We propose a numerical framework for this problem under an approximate star-shaped assumption. The method combines a deterministic centre-selection strategy with a trigonometric least-squares approximation of the radial function. By minimising a radial ambiguity functional, an interior centre is identified to enable a well-defined polar representation without point ordering or neighbourhood reconstruction. A truncated Fourier series is then fitted to obtain a smooth periodic parametric curve. In contrast to approaches that require point ordering, neighbourhood reconstruction, or nonlinear optimisation, the proposed framework reduces the two-dimensional fitting problem to a one-dimensional least-squares approximation in the radial coordinate, resulting in a smooth analytic representation obtained through a linear and computationally efficient procedure. Accuracy is evaluated using normalised RMSE and maximum point-to-curve deviation. Experiments on a 250-point unstructured dataset and on invariant curves arising from dynamical systems demonstrate accurate approximation with moderate Fourier order. The method is effective for planar point clouds that admit an approximate star-shaped structure.

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Cite This Article

Kapcak, S. (2026). Fitting a Closed Curve to Unordered Planar Points. Journal of Engineering Technology and Applied Sciences, Cilt: 11, 65–90. https://doi.org/10.30931/jetas.1817031

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  14. Pavlidis, T., “Curve fitting with conic splines”, IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence 5 (1983): 597–606.
  15. Plass, M., Stone, M., “Curve-fitting with piecewise parametric cubics”, Computer Graphics (Proceedings of SIGGRAPH) 17 (1983): 229–239.
  16. Pratt, V., “Direct least-squares fitting of algebraic surfaces”, Computer Graphics (Proceedings of SIGGRAPH) 21 (1987): 145–152.
  17. Wang, W., Pottmann, H., Liu, Y., “Fitting B-spline curves to point clouds by curvature-based squared distance minimization”, ACM Transactions on Graphics 25 (2006): 214–238.
  18. Pérez-Arribas, F., Castañeda-Sabadell, I., “Automatic modelling of airfoil data points”, Aerospace Science and Technology 55 (2016): 449–457.
  19. Zieniuk, E., Kapturczak, M., “Modeling the shape of boundary using NURBS curves directly in modified boundary integral equations for Laplace’s equation”, Computational and Applied Mathematics 37 (2018): 4835–4855.
  20. Ebrahimi, A.R., Barid Loghmani, Gh., Sarfraz, M., “Capturing outlines of planar generic images by simultaneous curve fitting and sub-division”, Journal of AI and Data Mining 8 (2020): 105–118.
  21. Jahanshahloo, A., Ebrahimi, A., “Reconstruction of the initial curve from a two-dimensional shape for the B-spline curve fitting”, The European Physical Journal Plus 137 (2022): 411.
  22. Wang, B., Zhao, Z., Chen, Y., Yu, J., “A novel robust point cloud fitting algorithm based on nonlinear Gauss–Helmert model”, IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation and Measurement 72 (2023): 1–12.
  23. Kapçak, S., Elaydi, S., Ufuktepe, Ü., “Stability of a predator–prey model with refuge effect”, Journal of Difference Equations and Applications 22 (2016): 989–1004.