The controllability of a system of two bank-to-turn airborne vehicles (Q1411006)

The paper deals with the controllability of the following system. Given two vehicles \({\mathbf P}\) and \({\mathbf E}\) moving in \(\mathbb{R}^3\), denote by \({\mathbf v}_{\mathbf P}\) and \({\mathbf v}_{\mathbf E}\) the vector velocities of \({\mathbf P}\) and \({\mathbf E}\). Also, let \((i_P,j_P,k_P)\), \((i_E,j_E,k_E)\) be an orthonormal set of unit vectors located along the body axes of \({\mathbf P}\) and \({\mathbf E}\). It is assumed that \({\mathbf v}_{\mathbf P}= \nu_P k_P\), \({\mathbf v}_{\mathbf E}= \nu_E k_E\), and that the vehicle \({\mathbf P}\) and \({\mathbf E}\) have vector angular velocities \(\Omega_P= \omega_{P1} i_P+ \omega_{P3} k_P\), \(\Omega_E= \omega_{E1} i_E+ \omega_{E3} k_E\), where \(\nu_P, \omega_{P1}, \omega_{P3}\), \(\nu_E, \omega_{E1}, \omega_{E3}\) act as the control function for \({\mathbf P}\) and \({\mathbf E}\). These two vehicles are called airborne. It is shown that the smooth manifold on which the system is controllable is not unique.