Configurations of an articulated arm and singularities of special multi-flags (Q401236)

The increasingly abstract development of the theory of multi-flags begins with a concrete question about the kinematics of an articulated arm. A motivating example arises from the kinematics of a car towing \(n\) trailers. This can be described by a Goursat distribution on the configuration space \(M= \mathbb{R}^2\times (S')^{n+1}\). The idea was subsequently generalized to define a special \(k\)-flag as a sequence of distributions \[ D= D_k\subset S_{k-1}\subset\cdots\subset D_j\subset\cdots \subset D_1\subset D_0= TM \] of length \(k\) on a manifold \(M\) of dimension \((k+1)m+1\) which satisfy: \(\bullet\) \(D_{j-1}= [D_j,D_j]\) is the distribution generated by all Lie brackets of sections of \(D_j\); \(\bullet\) \(D_j\) is a distribution of constant rank; \(\bullet\) each Cauchy characteristic subdistribution \(L(D_j)\) of \(D_j\) is a subdistribution of constant corank one in each \(D_{j}\) for \(j=1,\dots, k-1\) and \(L(D_k)= 0\); and \(\bullet\) there is a completely integrable subdistribution \(F\subset D_1\) of corank one in \(D_1\). Normally classified are singularities of special multi-flags in ``EKR classes'', encoded by sequences \(j_1,\dots, j_k\) of integers. \textit{A. L. Castro} and \textit{R. Montgomery} [Isr. J. Math. 192, Part A, 381--427 (2012; Zbl 1266.58023)] proposed a codification of singularities by new codes, ``RC'' and ``RVT''. The present paper describes the decomposition of each EKR set of depth 1 in terms of RVT codes, and characterizes each set as a configuration of an articulated arm.