Control of robot arms and Möbius transforms (Q819481)

Summary: For an \(m\)-tuple \(a=(a_1,\dots,a_m)\) of positive real numbers, the robot arm of type \(a\) in \(\mathbb R^d\) is the map \(f^a:(S^{d-1})^m \to\mathbb R^d\) defined by \(f^a(z_1,\dots,z_m)\) to be the sum of the \(a_jz_j\)'s. Our aim is to attack the inverse problem via the horizontal liftings for the distribution \(\Delta^a\) orthogonal to the fibers of \(f^a\). One shows that the connected components by horizontal curves are the orbits of an action on \((S^{d-1})^m\) by a product of groups of Möbius transformations. In several cases, the holonomy orbits of the distribution \(\Delta^a\) are also described.