Retrieving the distance from a point to the closest link of a robot [closed]

edit

I can successfully use the self_see_filter to filter out parts of my robot from point cloud data. What I want to do now is to determine the shortest distance between some point given in some coordinate frame and my robot, returning the closest point somewhere on the robot's shape. I'd imagine functionality like this is already used somewhere (planners for arm navigation for example). Is it also exposed for 'external use' somewhere? Any pointers where to look are appreciated.

This video of V-REP shows functionality similar to what I'd like to have (but I only need shortest distance between a point and robot, not between robot and robot).