Speaker: Alberto Bressan

Title: Impulsive control of Lagrangian systems and locomotion in fluids

Abstract:  The talk will present a survey of the theory of impulsive control of finite dimensional Lagrangian systems. In these models, some of the coordinates can be arbitrarily prescribed by a controller as functions of time.  It is assumed that these controls are implemented by means of frictionless constraints.  This uniquely determines the time evolution of the remaining free coordinates. After reviewing basic mathematical theory, we shall discuss some infinite dimensional examples, where bodies immersed in fluids achieve locomotion by changing their shape.