Document Type
Article
Publication Title
Symmetry, Integrability and Geometry: Methods and Applications (SIGMA)
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.
DOI
10.3842/SIGMA.2009.095
Publication Date
12-1-2009
Recommended Citation
Clelland, Jeanne N.; Moseley, Christopher G.; and Wilkens, George R., "Geometry of control-affine systems" (2009). University Faculty Publications and Creative Works. 373.
https://digitalcommons.calvin.edu/calvin_facultypubs/373