Related papers: Non-holonomic equations for the normal extremals i…
We use the notion of generalized connection over a bundle map in order to present an alternative approach to sub-Riemannian geometry. Known concepts, such as normal and abnormal extremals, will be studied in terms of this new formalism. In…
Necessary conditions for existence of normal extremals in optimal control of systems subject to nonholonomic constraints are derived as solutions of a constrained second order variational problems. In this work, a geometric interpretation…
In the present article the geometry of semi-Riemannian manifolds with nonholonomic constraints is studied. These manifolds can be considered as analogues to the sub-Riemannian manifolds, where the positively definite metric is substituted…
We study the interplay between geodesics on two non-holono\-mic systems that are related by the action of a Lie group on them. After some geometric preliminaries, we use the Hamiltonian formalism to write the parametric form of geodesics.…
For a Lagrangian system with nonholonomic constraints, we construct extensions of the equations of motion to sets of second-order ordinary differential equations. In the case of a purely kinetic Lagrangian, we investigate the conditions…
We discuss a variational approach to the length functional and its relation to sub-Hamiltonian equations on sub-Finsler manifolds. Then, we introduce the notion of the nonholonomic sub-Finslerian structure and prove that the distributions…
In this note, we show that sub-Riemannian manifolds can contain branching normal minimizing geodesics. This phenomenon occurs if and only if a normal geodesic has a discontinuity in its rank at a non-zero time, which in particular for a…
In this paper, we describe a constrained Lagrangian and Hamiltonian formalism for the optimal control of nonholonomic mechanical systems. In particular, we aim to minimize a cost functional, given initial and final conditions where the…
Nonholonomic mechanics describes the motion of systems constrained by nonintegrable constraints. One of its most remarkable properties is that the derivation of the nonholonomic equations is not variational in nature. {However, in} this…
In this paper we study contact nonholonomic mechanical sys\-tems. We construct a general framework for non-holonomic constraints in contact geometry and, in this framework, we define different nonholonomic brackets using con\-venient…
We approach the analysis of dynamical and geometrical properties of nonholonomic mechanical systems from the discussion of a more general class of auxiliary constrained Hamiltonian systems. The latter is constructed in a manner that it…
We consider $H$(eisenberg)-type groups whose law of left translation gives rise to a bracket generating distribution of step 2. In the contrast with sub-Riemannian studies we furnish the horizontal distribution with a nondegenerate…
We generalize the concept of sub-Riemannian geometry to infinite-dimensional manifolds modeled on convenient vector spaces. On a sub-Riemannian manifold $M$, the metric is defined only on a sub-bundle $\calH$ of the tangent bundle $TM$,…
We consider sub-Riemannian spaces admitting an isometry group that is maximal in the sense that any linear isometry between the horizontal tangent spaces is realized by a global isometry. We will show that these spaces have a canonical…
We give a new normalization condition for connections on sub-Riemannian manifolds with constant symbols. The condition is formulated in terms of Cartan connections and depends only on the first degree of homogeneity of the curvature. The…
The principal properties of geodesic normal coordinates are the vanishing of the connection components and first derivatives of the metric components at some point. It is well-known that these hold only at points where the connection has…
We study homogeneous geodesics of sub-Riemannian manifolds, i.e., normal geodesics that are orbits of one-parametric subgroups of isometries. We obtain a criterion for a geodesic to be homogeneous in terms of its initial momentum. We prove…
Motivated by a paper of Bolsinov and Taimanov DG/9911193 we consider non-holonomic situation and exhibit examples of sub-Riemannian metrics with integrable geodesic flows and positive topological entropy. Moreover the Riemannian examples…
This paper presents a geometric description on Lie algebroids of Lagrangian systems subject to nonholonomic constraints. The Lie algebroid framework provides a natural generalization of classical tangent bundle geometry. We define the…
The question whether a Riemannian manifold is geodesically connected can be studied from geometrical as well as variational methods, and accurate results can be obtained by using the associated distance and related properties of the…