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. 2022 Aug 4;15(15):5376.
doi: 10.3390/ma15155376.

A Distance-Field-Based Pipe-Routing Method

Shyh-Kuang Ueng  1 , Hsuan-Kai Huang  2
Affiliations

A Distance-Field-Based Pipe-Routing Method

Shyh-Kuang Ueng et al. Materials (Basel). .

Abstract

Pipes are commonly used to transport fuels, air, water, gas, hydraulic power, and other fluid-like materials in engine rooms, houses, factories, airplanes, and ships. Thus, pipe routing is essential in many industrial applications, including ship construction, machinery manufacturing, house building, laying out engine rooms, etc. To be functional, a pipe system should be economical while satisfying spatial constraints and safety regulations. Numerous routing algorithms have been published to optimize the pipe length and the number of elbows. However, relatively few methods have been designed to lay out pipes which strictly meet the spatial constraints and safety regulations. This article proposes a distance-field-based piping algorithm to remedy this problem. The proposed method converts the workspace into a 3D image and computes a distance field upon the workspace first. It then creates a feasible space out of the workspace by peeling the distance field and segmenting the 3D image. The resultant feasible space is collision-free and satisfies the spatial constraints and safety regulations. In the following step, a path-finding process, subjected to a cost function, is triggered to arrange the pipe inside the feasible space. Consequently, the cost of the pipe is optimized, and the pipe path rigidly meets the spatial constraints and safety regulations. The proposed method works effectively even if the workspace is narrow and complicated. In three experiments, the proposed method is employed to lay out pipes inside an underwater vehicle, a machinery room, and a two-story house, respectively. Not only do the resultant pipes possess minimal costs, but they also meet the spatial constraints and safety regulations, as predicted. In addition to developing the routing procedure, we also design a visualization subsystem to reveal the progression of the piping process and the variation of the workspace in the run time. Based on the displayed images, users can therefore evaluate the quality of the pipes on the fly and tune the piping parameters if necessary.

Keywords: distance field; pipe routing; shortest path; visualization in manufacturing.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Flowchart of the proposed piping method.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Distance field computation in a 2D domain, (a) the domain, (b) initial configuration and boundary condition, (c) the DONE, CLOSE, and FAR sets, and (d) partially computed distance field.
Figure 3
Figure 3
A 2D example illustrating the construction and variation of the feasible space, (a) the free space, (b) the primitive feasible space, (c) the final feasible space, (d) the pipe path composed of voxels.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Routing the 1st pipe inside the underwater vehicle, (a) internal structure of the domain, (b) two levels in the distance field, shaded in green and red colors, (c) the feasible space, shaded in green color, and (d) the resultant pipe, shaded in red color.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Routing the 2nd pipe, (a) the modified workspace, (b) two layers in the new distance field, shaded in green and red colors, (c) the feasible space of the 2nd pipe, and (d) the results, including the 1st and 2nd pipes (in red and green colors).
Figure 6
Figure 6
(a) Routing 3 pipes in a machinery room, (b) routing 2 pipes in a 2-story house.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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