Approximate Tracking Controllability of Systems with Quadratic Nonlinearities

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Rissel, Manuel, Tucsnak, Marius
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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_version_ 1866917084432171008
author Rissel, Manuel
Tucsnak, Marius
author_facet Rissel, Manuel
Tucsnak, Marius
contents Given a finite-dimensional time continuous control system and $\varepsilon>0$, we address the question of the existence of controls that maintain the corresponding state trajectories in the $\varepsilon$-neighborhood of any prescribed path in the state space. We investigate this property, called approximate tracking controllability, for linear and quadratic time invariant systems. Concerning linear systems, our answers are negative: by developing a systematic approach, we demonstrate that approximate tracking controllability of the full state is impossible even in a certain weak sense, except for the trivial situation where the control space is isomorphic to the state space. Motivated by these negative findings for linear systems, we focus on nonlinear dynamics. In particular, we prove weak approximate tracking controllability on any time horizon for a general class of systems with arbitrary linear part and quadratic nonlinear terms. The considered weak notion of approximate tracking controllability involves the relaxation metric. We underline the relevance of this weak setting by developing applications to coupled systems (including motion planning problems) and by remarking obstructions that would arise for natural stronger norms. The exposed framework yields global results even if the uncontrolled dynamics might exhibit singularities in finite time.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2511_12634
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Approximate Tracking Controllability of Systems with Quadratic Nonlinearities
Rissel, Manuel
Tucsnak, Marius
Optimization and Control
93B05 (primary) 93C10 (secondary)
Given a finite-dimensional time continuous control system and $\varepsilon>0$, we address the question of the existence of controls that maintain the corresponding state trajectories in the $\varepsilon$-neighborhood of any prescribed path in the state space. We investigate this property, called approximate tracking controllability, for linear and quadratic time invariant systems. Concerning linear systems, our answers are negative: by developing a systematic approach, we demonstrate that approximate tracking controllability of the full state is impossible even in a certain weak sense, except for the trivial situation where the control space is isomorphic to the state space. Motivated by these negative findings for linear systems, we focus on nonlinear dynamics. In particular, we prove weak approximate tracking controllability on any time horizon for a general class of systems with arbitrary linear part and quadratic nonlinear terms. The considered weak notion of approximate tracking controllability involves the relaxation metric. We underline the relevance of this weak setting by developing applications to coupled systems (including motion planning problems) and by remarking obstructions that would arise for natural stronger norms. The exposed framework yields global results even if the uncontrolled dynamics might exhibit singularities in finite time.
title Approximate Tracking Controllability of Systems with Quadratic Nonlinearities
topic Optimization and Control
93B05 (primary) 93C10 (secondary)
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.12634