Abstract.
We will discuss the unique, up to local isometries, contact sub-Riemannian structure on the group SE(2) of proper motions of the plane (aka group of rototranslations). The following questions will be addressed:
- geodesics,
- their local and global optimality,
- cut time, cut locus, and spheres,
- infinite geodesics,
- bicycle transform and relation of geodesics with Euler elasticae,
- group of isometries and homogeneous geodesics,
- applications to imaging and robotics.