Distance Field Model Concept for Space Representation

The distance field model (DFM), a new approach to space reasoning, i.e., the recognition and understanding of space, is realized by introducing the concept that a spatial object placed in a space generates a “distance field” represented by a function that maps arbitrary point P in space into a real number: the distance from P to this object. Analyzing the distance field, it is easy to judge, for example, what the surroundings are or how close obstacles are. To enable readers to understand the DFM concept, we introduce an object-oriented scheme to represent functions, and, by constructing a simplified object-oriented version of 2-dimensional (2D) DFM, we have compactly and comprehensively implemented the model. We also show that DFM is not limited to 2-dimensional space, but can be extended from the original to 3-dimensional (3D) or 2D-3D mixed systems.