On Smooth Whitney Extensions of almost isometries with small distortion, Interpolation and Alignment in $Bbb R^D$-Part 1

In this paper, we study the following problem: Let $Dgeq 2$ and let $Esubset mathbb R^D$ be finite satisfying certain conditions. Suppose that we are given a map $phi:Eto mathbb R^D$ with $phi$ a small distortion on $E$. How can one decide whether $phi$ extends to a smooth small distortion $Phi:mathbb R^Dto mathbb R^D$ which agrees with $phi$ on $E$. We also ask how to decide if in addition $Phi$ can be approximated well by certain rigid and non-rigid motions from $mathbb R^Dto mathbb R^D$. Since $E$ is a finite set, this question is basic to interpolation and alignment of data in $mathbb R^D$.