On sub-Riemannian geodesics in \(\mathrm{SE}(3)\) whose spatial projections do not have cusps (Q334633)

Given \(n\in\mathbb{N}\) with \(n\geq 2\), a constant \(\xi>0\), vectors \(\mathbf{x}_0,\mathbf{x}_1\in \mathbb{R}^n\) and vectors \(\mathbf{n}_0,\mathbf{n}_1 \in \mathbb{S}^{n-1}\), the problem \(\mathbf{P}_{{\mathbf{curve}}}\) asks for smooth curves \(\mathbf{x}: [0,L] \to \mathbb R^n\) with unit speed that minimize the energy functional \[ \mathcal{E}(\mathbf{x}) = \int_0^L \sqrt{\xi^2 + \|\mathbf{x}''(s)\|^2} \,ds \] subject to the initial conditions \[ \mathbf{x}(0) = \mathbf{x}_0, \quad \mathbf{x}(L)=\mathbf{x}_1, \quad \mathbf{x}'(0) = \mathbf{n}_0, \quad \mathbf{x}'(L) = \mathbf{n}_1. \] This problem has been fully solved in the case \(n=2\), while the article under review is concerned with the solution of \(\mathbf{P}_{{\mathbf{curve}}}\) in dimension \(3\). Towards the solution, the authors lift the problem \(\mathbf{P}_{{\mathbf{curve}}}\) to a sub-Riemannian problem \(\mathbf{P}_{{\mathbf{MEC}}}\) on \(\mathrm{SE}(3)\) and a sub-Riemannian problem \(\mathbf{P}_{{\mathbf{mec}}}\) on \(\mathrm{SE}(3)/(\{\mathbf{0}\}\times \mathrm{SO}(2))\). In Theorem 1, two conditions are identified under which spatial projections of minimizers of \(\mathbf{P}_{{\mathbf{MEC}}}\) are minimizers of \(\mathbf{P}_{{\mathbf{curve}}}\). One of the two conditions is that spatial projections contain no cusps. Moreover, in Theorem 1 it is shown that minimizers of \(\mathbf{P}_{{\mathbf{MEC}}}\) yield minimizers of \(\mathbf{P}_{{\mathbf{mec}}}\). In Theorem 2, the authors apply the Pontryagin maximum principle to prove Liouville integrability for the Hamiltonian system related to \(\mathbf{P}_{{\mathbf{MEC}}}\). Applying a well-known co-adjoint orbit structure in \(\mathrm{SE}(3)\) and integration formulas for the canonical equations of \(\mathbf{P}_{{\mathbf{mec}}}\) (Theorem 5) the authors derive explicit analytic formulas for the minimizers of \(\mathbf{P}_{{\mathbf{curve}}}\) and \(\mathbf{P}_{{\mathbf{mec}}}\) in Theorem 6 which are the article's main result. Applying the main result, several geometric properties of the minimizers are given in Section 4.3 such as planarity conditions and explicit bounds on the torsion and symmetries of the geodesics. Finally, a numerical analysis of problem \(\mathbf{P}_{{\mathbf{curve}}}\) is given in Section 5.