Contr\^ole des bras articul\'es et transformations de Moebius (Control of robot arms and Moebius transformations)

For a m-tuple a=(a_1,...,a_m) of positive real numbers, the robot arm of type a in R^d is the map f^a:(S^{d-1})^m -> R^d defined by f^a(z_1,...,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 actiion on (S^{d-1})^m by a product of groups of Moebius transformations. In several cases, the holonomy orbits of the distribution Delta^a are also described.