``Good Lie brackets'' for control affine systems (Q6178659)

In this manuscript, the author considers a control affine system \[ \dot{q}=f_0(q)+\sum_{i=1}^k u_if_i(q), \ q \in M, \ u_i \in \mathbb{R}. \] Here, \(f_j\), \(j=0,1,\ldots,k\), are \(C^{\infty}\) vector fields on the connected manifold \(M\). The space of \(C^{\infty}\) vector fields forms a Lie algebra Vec\(M\) over \(\mathbb{R}\), where Lie bracket \([f,g]\), \(f,g \in \mathrm{Vec}M\), is commutator of the differential operators, \([f,g]=f \circ g - g\circ f\). Attainable sets \(\mathcal{A}_t \subset \mathrm{Diff}M\) are defined as \[ \mathcal{A}_t = \{ \overrightarrow{\exp} \int_0^t f_0+f_{u(\tau)}d \tau \ : \ u(\cdot) \in L_1([0,t]; \mathbb{R}^k) \}. \] A vector field \(V \in \overline{\mathrm{Lie}(f_0, \ldots, f_k)}\) with at most linear growth is called a good bracket if \(e^{tV} \in \bar{\mathcal{A}}_t\) for any \(t >0\). \par In Section 2, the author constructs an extensive family of good brackets. The construction is universal, it does not depend on the nature of vector fields \(f_0, \ldots, f_k\). The whole construction can be performed in the free Lie algebra with free generators \(a_0, \ldots, a_k\); this is done in Section 3. Free Lie algebra is infinite-dimensional and too big for practical applications. Finite dimensional truncations of the universal good brackets are studied in Section 4. Any Lie algebra is the quotient of a free one by an ideal. If the projection of the set of universal good brackets to the quotient algebra contains a nontrivial affine subspace, then the whole construction can be iterated and more good brackets arise. This phenomenon is studied in Section 5. Finally, in Section 6, abstract results are applied to three special families of control systems.