Distance Between Two Line Segments

Finds the shortest distance between two line segments in 3d space.

These functions find the shortest distance between two line segments in 3d space using analytic expression and nonlinear constrained optimization.

function d=Distance2LinesA(va1,va2,vb1,vb2): finds the distance using analytic expression based on the equations in: https://stackoverflow.com/a/67102941

function d=Distance2LinesN(va1,va2,vb1,vb2): finds the distance using nonlinear constrained optimization.

where:

va1 is (3*1) coordinate vector for the first point of line segment a.

va2 is (3*1) coordinate vector for the second point of line segment a.

vb1 is (3*1) coordinate vector for the first point of line segment b.

vb2 is (3*1) coordinate vector for the second point of line segment b.

d is the shortest distance between line segment a and line segment b.