Hermite Interpolation of Solid Orientations with Circular Blending Quaternion Curves

Construction methods are presented that generate hermite interpolation quaternion curves on SO(3). Two circular curves C 1 (t) and C 2 (t), 0 t 1, are generated that interpolate two orientations q 1 and q 2 , and have boundary angular velocities: C 0 1 (0) = ! 1 and C 0 2 (1) = ! 2 , respectively. They are smoothly blended together on SO(3) to generate a hermite quaternion curve Q(t) 2 SO(3), 0 t 1, which satisses the boundary conditions: Q(0) = q 1 ; Q(1) = q 2 ; Q 0 (0) = ! 1 , and Q 0 (1) = ! 2 .