On symmetries of a sub-Riemannian structure with growth vector \((4, 7)\) (Q2678907)

The authors study a specific left-invariant sub-Riemannian structure with filtration \((4, 7)\). The motivation comes from [\textit{J. Hrdina} and \textit{L. Zalabová}, J. Dyn. Control Syst. 26, No. 2, 199--216 (2020; Zbl 1439.53034)], where a planar mechanism with a 7-dimensional configuration space is introduced. This mechanism consists of a root block in the shape of an equilateral triangle with three 1-link branches of variable length. Each of the branches is connected to one vertex of the root block via prismatic joints, with one of the joints being simultaneously revolute joint. Each link has a passive wheel on its branches, which is assumed to neither slip nor slide sideways. It is possible to derive three nonholonomic conditions of the motion, one for each branch. These conditions determine a 4-dimensional distribution of admissible directions given locally on the configuration space. The choice of a sub-Riemannian metric allows one to study optimal control; however, the corresponding control problem is highly nonlinear and hard to solve. The authors consider the nilpotent approximation \(N\) and the sub-Riemannian structure \((N,\mathcal N,g)\), where \(\mathcal N\) is a 4-distribution and \(g\) an appropriate metric. The metric \(g\) is actually invariant with respect to the action of suitable \(\mathrm{SO}(3,\mathbb R)\). The main results of the paper concern the sub-Riemannian geodesics of the corresponding control problem. It is shown that there are two very different types of geodesics: those that do not intersect the fixed point set of symmetries and those that are contained in this set for all times. Symmetry reduction is used to study geodesics contained in the fixed-point set.