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arXiv · 0903.4932

Geometry of Control-Affine Systems

Jeanne N. Clelland·Christopher G. Moseley·George R. Wilkens
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Abstract

Motivated by control-affine systems in optimal control theory, we introduce the notion of a point-affine distribution on a manifold X - i.e., an affine distribution F together with a distinguished vector field contained in F. We compute local invariants for point-affine distributions of constant type when dim(X)=n, rank(F)=n-1, and when dim(X)=3, rank(F)=1. Unlike linear distributions, which are characterized by integer-valued invariants - namely, the rank and growth vector - when dim(X)<=4, we find local invariants depending on arbitrary functions even for rank 1 point-affine distributions on manifolds of dimension 2.

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Jeanne N. Clelland, Christopher G. Moseley, George R. Wilkens. 2009-10-07. Geometry of Control-Affine Systems. https://doi.org/10.3842/sigma.2009.095

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