BIB-VERSION:: CS-TR-v2.0
          ID:: STAN//CS-TR-95-1559
       ENTRY:: January 12, 1996
ORGANIZATION:: Stanford University, Department of Computer Science
       TITLE:: On the number of equilibrium placements of mass distributions
               in elliptic potential fields
        TYPE:: Technical Report
      AUTHOR:: Kavraki, Lydia E.
        DATE:: December 1995
       PAGES:: 7
    ABSTRACT:: Recent papers have demonstrated the use of force fields for
               mechanical part orientation. The force field is realized on a
               plane on which the part is placed. The forces exerted on the
               part's contact surface translate and rotate the part to an
               equilibrium orientation. Part manipulation by force fields is
               very attractive since it requires no sensing. We describe
               force fields that result from elliptic potentials and induce
               only 2 stable equilibrium orientations for most parts. The
               proposed fields represent a considerable improvement over
               previously developed force fields which produced O(n)
               equilibria for polygonal parts with n vertices. The
               successful realization of these force fields could
               significantly affect part manipulation in industrial
               automation.
       NOTES:: [Adminitrivia V1/Prg/19960112]
         END:: STAN//CS-TR-95-1559