Extremal controls in the sub-Riemannian problem on the group of motions of Euclidean space (Q1795480)

Let \(\mathrm{SE}(3)\) be the Lie group of motions of \(3\)-dimensional Euclidean space \(\mathbb{R}^3\). This \(6\)-dimensional Lie group admits a natural left-invariant sub-Riemannian geometry of rank \(3\), i.e., an inner product on a \(3\)-dimensional left-invariant subbundle of the tangent bundle, which can be visualized as describing a rocket which can only move by thrust, pitch and yaw (but not roll). In this paper, the authors study geodesics of this geometry, describing, informally, how the rocket can fly most efficiently from one position and orientation to another. The main result of this paper is to obtain an explicit formula, in terms of special functions, for the momenta or ``controls'' for such geodesics, in the special case where one of the controls (denoted \(u_6\)) is identically zero. This relies upon, and extends, previous results of \textit{R. Duits} et al. [J. Dyn. Control Syst. 22, No. 4, 771--805 (2016; Zbl 1364.53033)], in which there was an additional restriction to geodesics without cusps. The authors propose to study the case \(u_6 \neq 0\) in future work.