Geometric Nonlinear Control: theory, methods and applications

The main aim of the School is to introduce students and young researchers to the differential-geometric methods of nonlinear control. Basic concepts and results of geometric control theory will be presented: optimal control, nonlinear controllability and observability, systems equivalence, linearization. The proposed mini-courses cover a large part of geometric nonlinear control: from classical results to recent ones and from purely theoretical to applied ones. Moreover, the presented topics show relations of geometric nonlinear control with neighboring areas of mathematics: geometry, calculus of variations, singularities of distributions, mechanics, etc.