Flatness and Monge parameterization of two-input systems, control-affine with 4 states or general with 3 states

This paper studies Monge parameterization, or differential flatness, of control-affine systems with four states and twocontrols. Some of them are known to be flat, and this implies admitting a Monge parameterization. Focusing on systems outside this class, we describe the only possible structure of such a parameterization for these systems, and give a lower bound on the order of this parameterization, if it exists. This lower-bound is good enough to recover the known results about "(x,u)-flatness" of these systems, with much more elementary techniques

Local Controllability of the Two-Link Magneto-Elastic Micro-Swimmer

A recent promising technique for robotic micro-swimmers is to endow them with a magnetization and apply an external magnetic field to provoke their deformation. In this note we consider a simple planar micro-swimmer model made of two magnetized segments connected by an elastic joint, controlled via a magnetic field. After recalling the analytical model, we establish a local controllability result around the straight position of the swimmer

Addendum to "Local Controllability of the Two-Link Magneto-Elastic Micro-Swimmer"

In the above mentioned note (, , published in IEEE Trans. Autom. Cont., 2017), the first and fourth authors proved a local controllability result around the straight configuration for a class of magneto-elastic micro-swimmers.That result is weaker than the usual small-time local controllability (STLC), and the authors left the STLC question open. The present addendum closes it by showing that these systems cannot be STLC

On local linearization of control systems

We consider the problem of topological linearization of smooth (C infinity or real analytic) control systems, i.e. of their local equivalence to a linear controllable system via point-wise transformations on the state and the control (static feedback transformations) that are topological but not necessarily differentiable. We prove that local topological linearization implies local smooth linearization, at generic points. At arbitrary points, it implies local conjugation to a linear system via a homeomorphism that induces a smooth diffeomorphism on the state variables, and, except at "strongly" singular points, this homeomorphism can be chosen to be a smooth mapping (the inverse map needs not be smooth). Deciding whether the same is true at "strongly" singular points is tantamount to solve an intriguing open question in differential topology

On the Curves that may be approached by Trajectories of a Smooth Control Affine System

In this paper, we give a characterization of the set of curves that may be approached by trajectories of a smooth control-affine nonlinear system, in the topology of uniform convergence. This characterization is in terms of the drift vector field and the distribution spanned by the Lie algebra generated by the control vector fields. The characterization is valid on open sets where this distribut- ion has constant rank. These results also characterize the support of diffusion processes with smooth coefficients

Integral representation formula for linear non-autonomous difference-delay equations

This note states and proves an integral representation formula of the "variation-of-constant" type for continuous solutions of linear non-autonomous difference delay systems, in terms of a Lebesgue-Stieltjes integral involving a fundamental solution and the initial data of the system. It gives a precise and (hopefuly) correct version of several formulations appearing in the literature, while extending them to the time-varying case.Comment: arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:2201.1206

On the curves that may be approached by trajectories of a smooth control affine system

International audienceIn this paper, we give a characterization of the set of curves that may be approached by trajectories of a smooth control-ane nonlinear system, in the topology of uniform convergence. This characterization is in terms of the drift vector field and the distribution spanned by the Lie algebra generated by the control vector fields. The characterization is valid on open sets where this distribution has constant rank. These results also characterize the support of di↵usion processes with smooth coecients.

A necessary condition for dynamic equivalence

International audienceIf two control systems on manifolds of the same dimension are dynamic equivalent, we prove that either they are static equivalent --i.e. equivalent via a classical diffeomorphism-- or they are both ruled; for systems of different dimensions, the one of higher dimension must ruled. A ruled system is one whose equations define at each point in the state manifold, a ruled submanifold of the tangent space. Dynamic equivalence is also known as equivalence by endogenous dynamic feedback, or by a Lie-Bäcklund transformation when control systems are viewed as underdetermined systems of ordinary differential equations; it is very close to absolute equivalence for Pfaffian systems. It was already known that a differentially flat system must be ruled; this is a particular case of the present result, in which one of the systems is assumed to be "trivial" (or linear controllable)