Irregular trajectories in vakonomic mechanical systems

Abstract

In his works, V.V. Kozlov proposed a mathematical model for the dynamics of a mechanical system with nonintegrable constraints, which was called vakonomic. In contrast to the then conventional nonholonomic model, trajectories in the vakonomic model satisfy necessary conditions for a minimum in a variational problem with equality constraints. We consider the so-called irregular case of this variational problem, which was not covered by Kozlov, when the trajectory is a singular point of the constraints and the necessary minimum conditions based on the Lagrange principle make no sense. This situation is studied using the theory of abnormal problems developed by the first author. As a result, the classical necessary minimum conditions are strengthened and developed to this class of problems.