Computing the minimum distance between two Bézier curves

A sweeping sphere clipping method is presented for computing the minimum distance between two Bezier curves. The sweeping sphere is constructed by rolling a sphere with its center point along a curve. The initial radius of the sweeping sphere can be set as the minimum distance between an end point and the other curve. The nearest point on a curve must be contained in the sweeping sphere along the other curve, and all of the parts outside the sweeping sphere can be eliminated. A simple sufficient condition when the nearest point is one of the two end points of a curve is provided, which turns the curve/curve case into a point/curve case and leads to higher efficiency. Examples are shown to illustrate efficiency and robustness of the new method.