Laboratoire de Mathématiques Raphaël Salem

UMR 6085 CNRS - Université de Rouen Normandie

« Micro-swimming », the study of locomotion at microscopic scale, is a broad topic with applications ranging from biology to medical robotics. The locomotion problem may be modelled as a nonlinear control-affine system, with or without a drift depending on modeling assumptions, such as environment model and the way deformation is controlled. This raises the question of controllability, i.e. the ability of the locomotor to reach any desired state. In this talk, I would like to give an overview of micro-locomotion theory and modeling, and introduce some controllability results along the way. In particular, I will discuss necessary conditions for local controllability of multi-input systems with a drift, with an application to a soft slender micro-robot controlled by a magnetic field.