Snakes and articulated arms in an Hilbert space (Q2452087)

A snake in a vector space \(V\) is a piecewise \(C^1\) curve \(S: [0,L]\to V\), with \(S(0)=0\), and an articulated arm is a piecewise affine snake. The problem of ``charming a snake'' consists of finding a \(1\)-parameter family of snakes \(S_t\) such that the head moves according to a prescribed curve, \(S_t(L)=c(t)\), see \textit{E. Rodriguez} [L'algorithme du charmeur de serpents. Genève: Univ. de Genève, Faculté des Sciences (Diss.) (2006; Zbl 1145.53300)]. In the present paper, the authors use results on integrability of distributions and orbits of vector fields on Banach manifolds to study the problem of charming snakes in a separable Hilbert space. The approach used is that of an accessibility problem, defining a horizontal distribution on the space of configurations of snakes and then seeking a horizontal curve that joins the desired initial and final configurations.