Object interference check method

A method for object-to-object interference checking, said method comprising:

• creating, on a computing device having a processor and memory, three dimensional (3D) points defining space occupied by each of two or more objects;
• updating coordinates of the 3D points based on a series of motion steps in which at least one of the objects moves to different positions;
• converting the 3D points for the objects to one dimensional (1D) indices defining workspace grid cell occupancy for each of the objects for each of the motion steps;
• storing the 1D indices as a set for the each of the objects for each of the motion steps;
• and
• performing an interference check by computing an intersection, at each of the motion steps, of the set of 1D indices for one of the objects and the set of 1D indices for another one of the objects, where a non-null intersection indicates that an interference condition exists.

An object-to-object interference checking system comprising:

• two or more objects in a workspace;
• and
• a computing device having a processor and memory, said computing device being configured to perform steps including;
• creating three dimensional (3D) points defining space occupied by each of two or more objects;
• converting the 3D points for the objects to one dimensional (1D) indices defining workspace grid cell occupancy for each of the objects;
• storing the 1D indices as a set for the each of the objects;
• and
• performing an interference check by computing an intersection of the set of 1D indices for one of the objects and the set of 1D indices for another one of the objects, where a non-null intersection indicates that an interference condition exists.