A promenade in microscopic locomotion and controllability of affine systems
« 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.