Riemannian Means as Solutions of Variational Problems

We formulate a variational problem on a Riemannian manifold M whose solutions are piecewise smooth geodesies that best fit a given data set of time labelled points in M. By a limiting process, these solutions converge to a single point in M. which we prove to be the Riemannian mean of the given points for some particular Riemannian manifolds such as Euclidean spaces, connected and compact Lie groups, and spheres.