A geometric setting for studying control-affine systems is presented and a feedback-invariant approach to studying local controllability is introduced. The principal geometric object in this construction is a system-independent linear map which, when restricted to system-dependent data, describes a class of variations for the system. The resulting conditions for controllability take the form of algebraic equations on the jets of sections of certain vector bundles.

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Last Updated: Fri Mar 15 07:55:53 2024