Publications
Sort:
Open Access Research Article Issue
On the "good" Lie brackets related to a polynomial system
AIMS Mathematics 2025, 10(12): 29703-29731
Published: 17 December 2025
Abstract PDF (309.6 KB) Collect
Downloads:1

Small-time local controllability (STLC) at a point x 0 is a fundamental property of control systems, and is intimately connected to the local structure of their reachable sets. This study built upon the notion of a tangent vector field to the reachable set of a control system, a concept introduced by Hermes in [7], based on an idea of Krener (cf. [18]). The importance of this concept stemed from the fact that the set E + ( x 0 ), consisting of all tangent vector fields to the reachable set at x 0 , formed a convex cone. If the zero vector lay in the interior of this cone, the system is STLC at x 0 . A long-standing open question concerns the precise characterization of the set E + ( x 0 ). In this paper, we studied the Lie algebra generated by the drift term—a vector field homogeneous of degree two—and the constant vector fields of a polynomial control system. By applying the classical Campbell–Baker–Hausdorff formula from Lie group theory, along with symmetries inherent to the control system, we derived new elements of the set E + ( x 0 ). Our results showed that certain "bad" Lie brackets (in the sense of Sussmann) do not obstruct the STLC property. As a corollary, we provided a sufficient condition for STLC.

Total 1