Epi-Convergence of Minimum Curvature Variation B-splines

We study the curvature variation functional, i.e., the integral over the square of arc-length derivative of curvature, along a planar curve. With no other constraints than prescribed position, slope angle, and curvature at the endpoints of the curve, the minimizer of this functional is known as a cubic spiral. It remains a challenge to effectively compute minimizers or approximations to minimizers of this functional subject to additional constraints such as, for example, for the curve to avoid obstacles such as other curves. In this paper, we consider the set of smooth curves that can be written as graphs of three times continuously differentiable functions on an interval, and, in particular, we consider approximations using quartic uniform B-spline functions. We show that if quartic uniform B-spline minimizers of the curvature variation functional converge to a curve, as the number of B-spline basis functions tends to infinity, then this curve is in fact a minimizer of the curvature variation functional. In order to illustrate this result, we present an example of sequences of B-spline minimizers that converge to a cubic spiral.