Nonholonomic systems and sub-Riemannian geometry (Q622328)

This expository paper presents a variety of classical nonholonomic mechanical systems with an emphasis on the perspective of sub-Riemannian geometry. The nonholonomic constraints induce a distinguished distribution in the tangent bundle of the associated state space; allowable motions of the system correspond to paths which remain everywhere tangent to this distribution. According to the Chow-Rashevsky theorem, if the distribution is bracket generating, then any two states are mutually accessible by an allowed motion of the system. Imposing a cost functional allows the possibility to determine ``optimal'' paths; these correspond physically to energy minimizing motions of the system, or geometrically to geodesic paths in the associated sub-Riemannian geometry. Among the classical problems considered in the paper are the knife edge (single skate), nonholonomic skater, Bernoulli-Euler elastica, the rolling disc, and the nonholonomic bicycle. Reviewer's remark: The authors' claim that the nonholonomic skater example provides a counterexample to the converse to the Chow-Rashevsky theorem is incorrect. In fact, it is known that the Chow-Rashevsky theorem is reversible for analytic vector fields but not in general for \(C^\infty\) vector fields, see Section 9 of [\textit{H. J. Sussmann}, Trans. Am. Math. Soc. 180, 171--188 (1973; Zbl 0274.58002)] and the discussion and example on pages 16 and 18 of [\textit{A. Bellaïche}, Prog. Math. 144, 1--78 (1996; Zbl 0862.53031)]. The error in the authors' argument is on page 303, in the computation of iterated brackets of vector fields: the coefficients of the vector field \(V\) depend on the angle \(\theta\) and hence \([\partial_\theta, fV] \neq (\partial_\theta f) V\).