Planar cubic G1 interpolatory splines with small strain energy

In this paper, a classical problem of the construction of a cubic G(1) continuous interpolatory spline curve is considered. The only data prescribed are interpolation points, while tangent directions are unknown. They are constructed automatically in such a way that a particular minimization of the strain energy of the spline curve is applied. The resulting spline curve is constructed locally and is regular, cusp-, loop- and fold-free. Numerical examples demonstrate that it is satisfactory as far as the shape of the curve is concerned. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.