Interference Detection Among Solids and Surfaces
In many industrial environments it is necessary to determine whether
r there is interference among components.  There are many potential
interference problems in products made up of assemblies of components 
and in product manufacturing and testing.  Typically, drawings
are used in an attempt to detect such unwanted interferences,
but the two-dimensional, static drafting medium does not always show
interferences among three-dimensional, moving parts.  This paper
 presents a computer representation for solids and surfaces and algorithms
which carry out interference checking among objects so represented.  
Objects are represented as polyhedra or as piecewise planar
surfaces.  Two types of interference checking are discussed:
detection of intersections among objects in fixed positions and detection
of collisions among objects moving along specified trajectories.
CACM January, 1979
Boyse, J.W.
