Zijia Li

Zijia Li, Josef Schicho, Hans-Peter Schröcker

Many researchers tried to understand/explain the geometric reasons for paradoxical mobility of a mechanical linkage, i.e. the situation when a linkage allows more motions than expected from counting parameters and constraints. Bond theory is a method that aims at understanding paradoxical mobility from an algebraic point of view. Here we give a self-contained introduction of this theory and discuss its results on closed linkages with revolute or prismatic joints.

Xueying Sun, Zijia Li, Nan Li

This paper investigates singular configurations of the P3P problem. Using local dual space, a systematic algebraic-computational framework is proposed to give a complete geometric stratification for the P3P singular configurations with respect to the multiplicity $μ$ of the camera center $O$: for $μ\ge 2$, $O$ lies on the ``danger cylinder'', for $μ\ge 3$, $O$ lies on one of three generatrices of the danger cylinder associated with the first Morley triangle or the circumcircle, and for $μ\ge 4$, $O$ lies on the circumcircle which indeed corresponds to infinite P3P solutions. Furthermore, a geometric stratification for the complementary configuration $O^\prime$ associated with a singular configuration $O$ is studied as well: for $μ\ge 2$, $O^\prime$ lies on a deltoidal surface associated with the danger cylinder, and for $μ\ge 3$, $O^\prime$ lies on one of three cuspidal curves of the deltoidal surface.

Xian Wu, Yitao Wu, Xiaoyu Li et al.

LiDAR-camera 3D multi-object tracking (MOT) combines rich visual semantics with accurate depth cues to improve trajectory consistency and tracking reliability. In practice, however, LiDAR and cameras operate at different sampling rates. To maintain temporal alignment, existing data pipelines usually synchronize heterogeneous sensor streams and annotate them at a reduced shared frequency, forcing most prior methods to perform spatial fusion only at synchronized timestamps through projection-based or learnable cross-sensor association. As a result, abundant asynchronous observations remain underexploited, despite their potential to support more frequent association and more robust trajectory estimation over short temporal intervals. To address this limitation, we propose Fusion-Poly, a spatial-temporal fusion framework for 3D MOT that integrates asynchronous LiDAR and camera data. Fusion-Poly associates trajectories with multi-modal observations at synchronized timestamps and with single-modal observations at asynchronous timestamps, enabling higher-frequency updates of motion and existence states. The framework contains three key components: a frequency-aware cascade matching module that adapts to synchronized and asynchronous frames according to available detection modalities; a frequency-aware trajectory estimation module that maintains trajectories through high-frequency motion prediction, differential updates, and confidence-calibrated lifecycle management; and a full-state observation alignment module that improves cross-modal consistency at synchronized timestamps by optimizing image-projection errors. On the nuScenes test set, Fusion-Poly achieves 76.5% AMOTA, establishing a new state of the art among tracking-by-detection 3D MOT methods. Extensive ablation studies further validate the effectiveness of each component. Code will be released.

Tiago Duarte Guerreiro, Zijia Li, Josef Schicho

We provide a complete classification of paradoxical closed-loop $n$-linkages, where $n\geq6$, of mobility $n-4$ or higher, containing revolute, prismatic or helical joints. We also explicitly write down strong necessary conditions for $nR$-linkages of mobility $n-5$. Our main new tool is a geometric relation between a linkage $L$ and another linkage $L'$ resulting from adding equations to the configuration space of $L$. We then lift known classification results for $L'$ to $L$ using this relation.

Zijia Li, Andreas Müller

It has become obvious that certain singular phenomena cannot be explained by a mere investigation of the configuration space, defined as the solution set of the loop closure equations. For example, it was observed that a particular 6R linkage, constructed by a combination of two Goldberg 5R linkages, exhibits kinematic singularities at a smooth point in its configuration space. Such problems are addressed in this paper. To this end, an algebraic framework is used in which the constraints are formulated as polynomial equations using Study parameters. The algebraic object of study is the ideal generated by the constraint equations (the constraint ideal). Using basic tools from commutative algebra and algebraic geometry (primary decomposition, Hilbert's Nullstellensatz), the special phenomenon is related to the fact that the constraint ideal is not a radical ideal. With a primary decomposition of the constraint ideal, the associated prime ideal of one primary ideal contains strictly into the associated prime ideal of another primary ideal which also gives the smooth configuration curve. This analysis is extended to shaky and kinematotropic linkages, for which examples are presented.

Zijia Li, Josef Schicho, Hans-Peter Schröcker

We prove that every bounded rational space curve of degree d and circularity c can be drawn by a linkage with 9/2 d - 6c + 1 revolute joints. Our proof is based on two ingredients. The first one is the factorization theory of motion polynomials. The second one is the construction of a motion polynomial of minimum degree with given orbit. Our proof also gives the explicity construction of the linkage.

Gábor Hegedüs, Zijia Li, Josef Schicho et al.

This article provides a gentle introduction for a general mathematical audience to the factorization theory of motion polynomials and its application in mechanism science. This theory connects in a rather unexpected way a seemingly abstract mathematical topic, the non-unique factorization of certain polynomials over the ring of dual quaternions, with engineering applications. Four years after its introduction, it is already clear how beneficial it has been to both fields.

Zijia Li, Josef Schicho, Hans-Peter Schröcker

In this paper, we consider the existence of a factorization of a monic, bounded motion polynomial. We prove existence of factorizations, possibly after multiplication with a real polynomial and provide algorithms for computing polynomial factor and factorizations. The first algorithm is conceptually simpler but may require a high degree of the polynomial factor. The second algorithm gives an optimal degree.

Matteo Gallet, Christoph Koutschan, Zijia Li et al.

Designing mechanical devices, called linkages, that draw a given plane curve has been a topic that interested engineers and mathematicians for hundreds of years, and recently also computer scientists. Already in 1876, Kempe proposed a procedure for solving the problem in full generality, but his constructions tend to be extremely complicated. We provide a novel algorithm that produces much simpler linkages, but works only for parametric curves. Our approach is to transform the problem into a factorization task over some noncommutative algebra. We show how to compute such a factorization, and how to use it to construct a linkage tracing a given curve.

Zijia Li, Josef Schicho, Hans-Peter Schröcker

In this paper, we construct two types of 7R closed single loop linkages by combining different factorizations of a general (non-vertical) Darboux motion. These factorizations are obtained by extensions of a factorization algorithm for a generic rational motion. The first type of 7R linkages has several one-dimensional configuration components and one of them corresponds to the Darboux motion. The other type is a 7R linkage with two degrees of freedom and without one-dimensional component. The Darboux motion is a curve in an irreducible two dimensional configuration component.

Zijia Li, Tudor-Dan Rad, Josef Schicho et al.

Since its introduction in 2012, the factorization theory for rational motions quickly evolved and found applications in theoretical and applied mechanism science. We provide an accessible introduction to motion factorization with many examples, summarize recent developments and hint at some new applications. In particular, we provide pseudo-code for the generic factorization algorithm, demonstrate how to find a replacement linkage for a special case in the synthesis of Bennett mechanisms and, as an example of non-generic factorization, synthesize open chains for circular and elliptic translations.

Zijia Li, Josef Schicho, Hans-Peter Schröcker

We use the recently introduced factorization of motion polynomials for constructing overconstrained spatial linkages with a straight line trajectory. Unlike previous examples, the end-effector motion is not translational and the link graph is a cycle. In particular, we obtain a number of linkages with four revolute and two prismatic joints and a remarkable linkage with seven revolute joints one of whose joints performs a Darboux motion.

Zijia Li, Josef Schicho

A closed 6R linkage is generically rigid. Special cases may be mobile. Many families of mobile 6R linkages have been characterised in terms of the invariant Denavit-Hartenberg parameters of the linkage. In other words, many sufficient conditions for mobility are known. In this paper we give, for the first time, equational conditions on the invariant Denavit-Hartenberg parameters that are necessary for mobility. The method is based on the theory of bonds. We illustrate the method by deriving the equational conditions for various well-known linkages (Bricard's line symmetric linkage, Hooke's linkage, Dietmaier's linkage, and recent a generalization of Bricard's orthogonal linkage), starting from their bond diagrams; and by deriving the equations for another bond diagram, thereby discovering a new mobile 6R linkage.

Hamid Abban, Zijia Li, Josef Schicho

Methods from algebra and algebraic geometry have been used in various ways to study linkages in kinematics. These methods have failed so far for the study of linkages with helical joints (joints with screw motion), because of the presence of some non-algebraic relations. In this article, we explore a delicate reduction of some analytic equations in kinematics to algebraic questions via a theorem of Ax. As an application, we give a classification of mobile closed 5-linkages with revolute, prismatic, and helical joints.

Zijia Li, Josef Schicho

In this paper, we consider a special kind of overconstrained 6R closed linkages which we call angle-symmetric 6R linkages. These are linkages with the property that the rotation angles are equal for each of the three pairs of opposite joints. We give a classification of these linkages. It turns that there are three types. First, we have the linkages with line symmetry. The second type is new. The third type is related to cubic motion polynomials.

Christopher Thorpe, Feng Li, Zijia Li et al.

This paper presents a novel Coprime Blurred Pair (CBP) model for visual data-hiding for security in camera surveillance. While most previous approaches have focused on completely encrypting the video stream, we introduce a spatial encryption scheme by blurring the image/video contents to create a CBP. Our goal is to obscure detail in public video streams by blurring while allowing behavior to be recognized and to quickly deblur the stream so that details are available if behavior is recognized as suspicious. We create a CBP by blurring the same latent image with two unknown kernels. The two kernels are coprime when mapped to bivariate polynomials in the z domain. To deblur the CBP we first use the coprime constraint to approximate the kernels and sample the bivariate CBP polynomials in one dimension on the unit circle. At each sample point, we factor the 1D polynomial pair and compose the results into a 2D kernel matrix. Finally, we compute the inverse Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) of the kernel matrices to recover the coprime kernels and then the latent video stream. It is therefore only possible to deblur the video stream if a user has access to both streams. To improve the practicability of our algorithm, we implement our algorithm using a graphics processing unit (GPU) to decrypt the blurred video streams in real-time, and extensive experimental results demonstrate that our new scheme can effectively protect sensitive identity information in surveillance videos and faithfully reconstruct the unblurred video stream when two blurred sequences are available.