Vertical Control Systems on Tangent Bundles and Fiberwise Controllability

TL;DR

This paper analyzes control systems on tangent bundles, focusing on fiberwise controllability, explicit solutions, and conditions for reachability using rank and Lie algebra criteria.

Contribution

It introduces explicit solutions and controllability conditions for vertical and lifted control systems on tangent bundles, linking fiberwise controllability to rank and Lie algebra conditions.

Findings

Fiberwise controllability is equivalent to a rank condition on vector fields.

Explicit solutions are derived for vertical and lifted systems.

A Lie-algebraic criterion ensures fiberwise controllability.

Abstract

We study control systems on the tangent bundle of a smooth manifold induced by vertical lifts of vector fields. The Vertical dynamics acts exclusively along the fibers, leaving the base point unchanged and reducing the system to a linear control problem on each tangent space, for which we obtain explicit solutions and characterize reachable sets, showing that fiberwise controllability is equivalent to a rank condition on the original vector fields. We then consider lifted systems combining complete drift and vertical controls, where the base trajectory is fixed by the drift and the control acts on tangent directions. For these systems, we derive explicit solutions and a complete characterization of reachable sets via a transport operator, yielding a necessary and sufficient condition for fiberwise controllability in terms of transported vector fields, together with a Lie-algebraic sufficient criterion.