Cubic Spline Interpolation Tutorial

hotvette

Attached below are two cubic spline tutorials:

1. Explanation of the classic tri-diagonal cubic spline formulation. Included are 2 example problems.

2. Extension to parametric cubic splines. Included are 2 example problems
.

Attached Files

	Cubic Spline Tutorial.pdf (65.3 KB, 5142 views)
	Parametric Spline Tutorialv2.pdf (102.8 KB, 2677 views)

Drager

wow,

After a very long search in google i found this tutorial.

And it was the first one, which describes parametric cubic splines in a good way.

Thank you very much :-)

Now i can lay streets through my landscape :-)

Cyko007

Sigh....Thank You!

I was missing something very stupid and now I know what it is!

emer

Thank you for tutorials. This has helped me very mush.

harshm

Hey there -
Thanks for the great tutorials - they really helped me! I'm trying to duplicate your results for cubic interpolation of a circle with 4 points and I got the same solution for the 2nd derivatives in the x and y directions. However, when I solve for the coefficients and plot the cubic polynomials I can't seem to get the same result as you - Heres the code that calculates the coefficients (in MATLAB)

mx - x''
my - y''
Sx - x coefficients
Sy - y coefficients
s - arc length [0 0.25 0.5 0.75 1]

for i = 1:n-1
Sx(i,1) = (mx(i+1) - mx(i))/6*h;
Sx(i,2) = mx(i)/2;
Sx(i,3) = (x(i+1) - x(i))/h - h*(mx(i+1) + 2*mx(i))/6;
Sx(i,4) = x(i);

Sy(i,1) = (my(i+1) - my(i))/6*h;
Sy(i,2) = my(i)/2;
Sy(i,3) = (y(i+1) - y(i))/h - h*(my(i+1) + 2*my(i))/6;
Sy(i,4) = y(i);

end


%Plotting the function
ds = 0.01;
m=1;
i=1;
for i = 1:n-1
for k = s(i):ds:s(i+1)
genpnx(m) = Sx(i,1)*(k - s(i))^3 + Sx(i,2)*(k-s(i))^2 + Sx(i,3)*(k-s(i)) + Sx(i,4);
genpny(m) = Sy(i,1)*(k - s(i))^3 + Sy(i,2)*(k-s(i))^2 + Sy(i,3)*(k-s(i)) + Sy(i,4);
m = m+1;
end
i
end

plot(genpnx,genpny,'r')

Do you have any idea what I might be doing wrong? (Ive attached an image of what the spline looks like for 4 points)

Thanks!

Attached Thumbnails

 

hotvette

Though I'm not a MATLAB person, your expressions for calculating the coefficients look correct. Make sure you are using 0.25 for h. Also, for plotting, t should vary from 0 to 0.25 for each segment.

Here are the coefficient values I got for the 1st segment:

ax = 32
bx = -24
cx = 0
dx = 1

ay = -32
by = 0
cy = 6
dy = 0

Actually, this isn't the best way to fit a circle with cubic polynomials. It is better to fit a quarter circle with a single parametric cubic. The tutorial has been updated - check it out.

harshm

Thanks for the coefficients - they helped me figure out what the problem was - a syntax problem - the correct expression for the coefficients are

Sx(i,1) = (mx(i+1) - mx(i))/(6*h)

while I had

Sx(i,1) = (mx(i+1) - mx(i))/6*h

Thanks a ton!

hotvette

Glad to help. Fyi, the problem can be made even simpler by making h = 1, meaning s = [0 1 2 3 4]. Second deriveratives are x" = [-3 0 3 -3], y" = [0 -3 0 3 0] and plotting can be done for t varying from 0 to 1 for each segment.

I encourage you to review the updated tutorial on circle fitting.

hotvette

Attached is an update to the Cubic Spline Tutorial.

To Staff,

Would someone be willing to replace the 1st attachment in this thread with the below? Thanks.

vimspal

thanks a lot buddy.

spacecamel

Hi hotvette,
I have been looking for a good tutorial on Cubic Splines, nice work. I have found what I think might be an error in one of your examples, however. Example Problem #1 shows c2 = 0, but when I plug in the values:
y3 = 1
y2 = 0.125
h2 = .5
y3" = 0
y2" = 4.5
I come up with c2 = 1, not 0. Plugging 0.5 into the second polynomial with c2 = 1, I get y2 = 1, thus resulting in a discontinuity with the first polynomial. I'm too lazy to try to work out the root of the problem, but I figured I'd flag the discrepancy.
Cheers

hotvette

Agree that C2 = 1.0 (typo), but I think the evaluation of the 2nd poly is OK:

[tex]y = a2(x - x_2)^3 + b2(x - x_2)^2 + c2(x - x_2) + d2[/tex]

Update with typo fixed is attached.

Attached Files

Cubic Spline Tutorial v3.pdf (109.2 KB, 1066 views)

spacecamel

Yep, my mistake. I used ax^3 + bx^2 + cx + d rather than using (x-x0), etc.
Thanks again for the excellent tutorial.

goslar

For the cubic spline interpolation if we have
A=(x2-x)/h; B=(x-x1/h); C=1/6*(A^3-A)*h^2; D=1/6*(B^3-B)*h^2;
y=A y1 + B y2 + C y1'' + D y2''

What is the interpolation error of above?


For example for Hermitian cubic spline it is smaller than 5/384 ||f^{(4)}|| h^4

cpile

Thanks very much my friend! The tutorial for the parametric C Splines was very helpful to me!
You see, every book I ve read doesn t say how we can relate the derivatives of the actual curve to the derivatives of the parametric equations of x & y. Ok, its easy to proof with the chain rule but what about the values of these derivatives on bounds!! Simply, x'(t)/y'(t) must be constant on bounds, so give x'(t),y'(t) any value you want to keep this ratio constant! HAHAHAH, i feel stupid...
Very helpful!
Thanks again!

$am!

Thanks! Just what i was looking for! :)

ark5230

Any reading suggestion to smooth out a curve using spline or similar approach.