On sub-Riemannian geodesics in SE(3) whose spatial projections do not have cusps

. We apply the Pontryagin Maximum Principle (PMP) and prove Liouville integrability of the Hamiltonian system. We derive explicit analytic formulas for such sub-Riemannian geodesics, relying on the co-adjoint orbit structure, an underlying Cartan connection, and the matrix representation of

o p e r a t o r n a m e S E (3) o l i m i t s

arising in the Cartan-matrix. These formulas allow us to extract geometrical properties of the sub-Riemannian geodesics with cuspless projection, such as planarity conditions, explicit bounds on their torsion, and their symmetries. Furthermore, they allow us to parameterize all admissible boundary conditions reachable by geodesics with cuspless spatial projection. Such projections lay in the upper half space. We prove this for most cases, and the rest is checked numerically. Finally, we employ the formulas to numerically solve the boundary value problem, and visualize the set of admissible boundary conditions.

Review text

Given \(n\in\mathbb{N}\) with \(n\geq 2\), a constant \(\xi>0\), vectors \(\mathbf{x}_0,\mathbf{x}_1\in \mathbb{R}^n\) and vectors \(\mathbf{n}_0,\mathbf{n}_1 \in \mathbb{S}^{n-1}\), the problem \(\mathbf{P}_{{\mathbf{curve}}}\) asks for smooth curves \(\mathbf{x}: [0,L] \to \mathbb R^n\) with unit speed that minimize the energy functional \[ \mathcal{E}(\mathbf{x}) = \int_0^L \sqrt{\xi^2 + \|\mathbf{x}(s)\|^2} \,ds \] subject to the initial conditions \[ \mathbf{x}(0) = \mathbf{x}_0, \quad \mathbf{x}(L)=\mathbf{x}_1, \quad \mathbf{x}'(0) = \mathbf{n}_0, \quad \mathbf{x}'(L) = \mathbf{n}_1. \] This problem has been fully solved in the case \(n=2\), while the article under review is concerned with the solution of \(\mathbf{P}_{{\mathbf{curve}}}\) in dimension \(3\). Towards the solution, the authors lift the problem \(\mathbf{P}_{{\mathbf{curve}}}\) to a sub-Riemannian problem \(\mathbf{P}_{{\mathbf{MEC}}}\) on \(\mathrm{SE}(3)\) and a sub-Riemannian problem \(\mathbf{P}_{{\mathbf{mec}}}\) on \(\mathrm{SE}(3)/(\{\mathbf{0}\}\times \mathrm{SO}(2))\). In Theorem 1, two conditions are identified under which spatial projections of minimizers of \(\mathbf{P}_{{\mathbf{MEC}}}\) are minimizers of \(\mathbf{P}_{{\mathbf{curve}}}\). One of the two conditions is that spatial projections contain no cusps. Moreover, in Theorem 1 it is shown that minimizers of \(\mathbf{P}_{{\mathbf{MEC}}}\) yield minimizers of \(\mathbf{P}_{{\mathbf{mec}}}\). In Theorem 2, the authors apply the Pontryagin maximum principle to prove Liouville integrability for the Hamiltonian system related to \(\mathbf{P}_{{\mathbf{MEC}}}\). Applying a well-known co-adjoint orbit structure in \(\mathrm{SE}(3)\) and integration formulas for the canonical equations of \(\mathbf{P}_{{\mathbf{mec}}}\) (Theorem 5) the authors derive explicit analytic formulas for the minimizers of \(\mathbf{P}_{{\mathbf{curve}}}\) and \(\mathbf{P}_{{\mathbf{mec}}}\) in Theorem 6 which are the article's main result. Applying the main result, several geometric properties of the minimizers are given in Section 4.3 such as planarity conditions and explicit bounds on the torsion and symmetries of the geodesics. Finally, a numerical analysis of problem \(\mathbf{P}_{{\mathbf{curve}}}\) is given in Section 5.

Recommendations

Cites work

Cited in

(15)

Describes a project that uses

Uses Software

HamPath

This page was built for publication: On sub-Riemannian geodesics in \(\mathrm{SE}(3)\) whose spatial projections do not have cusps

Report a bug (only for logged in users!)Click here to report a bug for this page (MaRDI item Q334633)