Planar G2 transition between two circles with a fair cubic Bezier curve

Consumer products such as ping-pong paddles, can be designed by blending circles. To be visually pleasing it is desirable that the blend be curvature continuous without extraneous curvature extrema. Transition curves of gradually increasing or decreasing curvature between circles also play an important role in the design of highways and railways. Recently planar cubic and Pythagorean hodograph quintic spiral segments were developed and it was demonstrated how these segments can be composed pairwise to form transition curves that are suitable for G(2) blending. It is now shown that a single cubic curve can be used for blending or as a transition curve with the guarantee of curvature continuity and fairness. Use of a single curve rather than two segments has the benefit that designers and implementers have fewer entities to be concerned with. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.