Rolling Riemannian Manifolds

Mayank Baranwal
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Rolling Bodies

Introduction

An old problem in the field of holonomy asks: Given a pair of orientations for a sphere
resting on a plane, is there a closed path along which one can roll the sphere (without slipping or
twisting), starting with the first orientation, and return to the origin with the sphere in the second
orientation? The answer is yes, and the goal of this article is to provide an elementary
proof of this fact. Moreover, this article also discusses the existence of optimal control for
the rolling problem of two rigid bodies (Riemannian manifolds).
Rolling is a rigid motion in the embedding space, subject to holonomic and nonholonomic constraints. The rolling motion is then described by the action of the Euclidean
group SEn = SOn Rn on Rn :
SEn := {X = (R, s) : R SOn , s Rn }
SEn Rn Rn
(X, p) 7 X p = Rp + s.
Even though the goal of this article is to discuss the rolling problem in full detail, a complete analysis would require several tools from differential geometry. Hence, it will be
useful to first develop an understaing of these mathematical preliminaries.
Section 2 of this article talks about Fiber bundles and Vector bundles. Section 3 essentially
defines what is meant by the directional derivative of vector fields on manifolds. Section
4 talks about describing connections on manifolds as a means to not only compare the
tangent spaces at different points, but to also allow to perform calculus on the manifolds.
This is followed by a brief introduction to Pontryagin maximum principle. The subsequent
sections then discuss the original rolling problem.

Fiber Bundle

In mathematics, and particularly topology, a fiber bundle is a space that is locally a

product space, but globally may have a different topological structure. Specifically, the
similarity between a space E and a product space B F is defined using a continuous
surjective map
:EB
that in small regions of E behaves just like a projection from corresponding regions of B F
to B. The map , called the projection or submersion of the bundle, is regarded as part
of the structure of the bundle. The space E is known as the total space of the fiber bundle,
B as the base space, and F the fiber.
Formally, a fiber bundle is a structure (E, B, , F). We require that the following diagram
should commute:

where, U is an open neighborhood U B of (x), proj1 : UF U is the natural projection

and : 1 (U) U F is a homeomorphism. The set of all {(Ui , i )} is called a local
trivialization of the bundle. Thus for any p in B, the preimage 1 ({p}) is homeomorphic
to F and is called the fiber over p.

2.1

Vector Bundle

A special class of fiber bundles, called vector bundles, are those whose fibers are vector
spaces (to qualify as a vector bundle the structure group of the bundle must be a linear
group). Important examples of vector bundles include the tangent bundle and cotangent
bundle of a smooth manifold.

2.2

Sections

A section (or cross section) of a fiber bundle is a continuous map f : B E such that
( f (x)) = x for all x in B. Since bundles do not in general have globally defined sections,
one of the purposes of the theory is to account for their existence. A section picks out an
element of each fiber, in a continuous way.

2.3

Vertical Bundle

In mathematics, the vertical bundle of a smooth fiber bundle is the subbundle of the
tangent bundle that consists of all vectors that are tangent to the fibers. Formally, let
2

 : E 7 M be a smooth fiber bundle over a smooth manifold M. The vertical bundle is

the kernel VE := ker(d) of the tangent map d : TE M.
A simple example of a smooth fiber bundle is a Cartesian product of two manifolds. Consider the bundle B1 := (M N, pr1 ) with bundle projection pr1 : M N M : (x, y) x.
Applying the definition in the paragraph above to find the vertical bundle, we consider
first a point (m, n) in M N. Then the image of this point under pr1 is m. The preimage of
m under this same pr1 is {m} N, so that T(m,n) ({m} N) = {m} TN. The vertical bundle
is then VB1 = M TN, which is a subbundle of T(M N). If we take the other projection
pr2 : M N N : (x, y) y to define the fibder bundle B2 := (M N, pr2 ) then the vertical
bundle will be VB2 = TM N.

2.4

Connections in general fiber bundles

Let = (E, , B, F) be a fiber bundle with a C manifold F as fiber. By definition, is

locally like a direct product but globally may not be; that is globally it may be twisted.
One measure for such twisting is given by the notion of connection.
Let us consider the case of a direct product E = BF. In this case, at any point u = (b, p) E,
the tangent space Tu E is written
Tu E = Tb B Tp F
namely the direct sum of two subspaces, one in the base direction and the other in the
fiber direction. According to the direct sum decomposition, any tangent vector X Tu E is
decomposed as
X = Xh + Xv (Xh Tb B, Xv Tp F)
where Xh and Xv are called the horizontal and vertical components of X, respectively.
For a fiber bundle in general, it is natural to call vectors tangent to a fiber vertical vectors.
To be more precise, the subspcae of Tu E given by
Vu = Tu Eb Tu E (b = (u), Eb = 1 (b))

(1)

is the vertical subspace at u. However there is no natural way to distinguish vectors as

horizontal. Using horizontal vectors, we may relate points lying on different fibers in a
certain way, as we now explain.
Let c : [a, b] B be a smooth curve in the base B. A curve c : [a, b] E is called a
lift if (c(t)) = c(t) for each t [a, b]. If the velocity vector c(t) is horizontal for every t, we
call c(t) a horizontal lift.
Theorem: Let : E M be a smooth fiber bundle with fiber F, and let be a connection. If p M and t 7 c(t) is a smooth curve in M with c(0) = p, then for each choice of
lift u Ep of p, there exists a unique horizontal lift t 7 c(t) of c with c(0) = u, defined for
small t.
3

Directional Derivative on a Manifold

3.1

Directional Derivative of a function

Let M be a manifold, g be a smooth function, p M be a point, and ~

v Tp M be a
tangent vector at p. Let t c(t) be a smooth curve defined in a neighborhood of 0 such
that c(0) = p and c0 (0) = ~
v. Thus the directional derivative of g at p in the direction ~
v is
the number D~v g defined by
d
D~v g := (g(c(t)))|t=0
dt
If X Vec(M) is a vector field on M, then the directional derivative of g in the direction
X is the function DX g defined by DX g(p) := DXp g for p M. Here Xp is the tangent vector
at x given by the vector field X. In this way, each vector field X Vec(M) gives rise to a
transformation DX : C (M) C (M). Each DX is linear over <, and obeys Leibniz rule:
DX ( f.g) = f.DX g + g.DX f f, g C (M)
Such transformations of C (M) are called derivations. And,
(D f X g)(p) := D( f X)p g = D( f (p).Xp ) g = f (p).DXp g = ( f.DX g)(p)
So D f X g = f.DX g.

3.2

Directional Derivative of a vector field

A directional derivative of a vector field is a map : Vec(M)Vec(M) Vec(M), (X, Y)

X Y, such that is bilinear over < and satisfies the Leibniz rule,
X ( f Y) = DX f.Y + f.X Y
If also satisfies f X Y = f.X Y for all f C (M), then is called covariant, or tensorial
with respect to direction. Unfortunately, there is no natural choice of a covariant directional
derivative of vector fields for an arbitrary manifold. There is however, a natural choice of
directional derivative, called the Lie derivative.
Directional derivative at a point depends only on the specific direction at that point, i.e.,
if X1 and X2 agree at a given point p M, then, X1 Y(p) = X2 Y(p).

3.3

Parallel vector field

A vector field V along is called parallel if 0 (t) V = 0 identically.

3.4

Flow of a vector field

Let X Vec(M), and let t : M M be the flow of X. This means that 0 is the identity
map
d
t (p)|t=0 = Xp p M
dt
4

t, t is a diffeomorphism. It can be shown that s t = s+t , s, t < for which the flow
is defined. The Lie derivative of a vector field Y Vec(M) in the direction X is the vector
field LX Y defined by
Yp (t Y)p
p M
(LX Y)(p) := lim
t0
t
Here t Y is the pushforward of the vector field Y by the diffeomorphism t , defined by
(dt )1
Y 1 , where dt is the derivative of t .
t (p) t (p)
If our manifold is Rn , then there actually is a natural choice of covariant directional derivative. We define : Vec(Rn ) Vec(Rn ) Vec(Rn ) by
X Y(p) := lim

Yp+tXp Yp

t0

One can show that,

L f X Y = LY ( f X) = DY f.X + f.LY X = DY f.X f.LX Y
So LX Y is tensorial in X if and only if DY f.X 0, which is generally true only if X or Y is
the zero vector field.

Connection

Connections provide an additional structure to let take the derivatives on a manifold.

Levi-Civita Theorem: Let (M, g) be a Riemannian manifold. There exists a unique affine
connection that satisfies the following two conditions:
(1) Compatibility: g is identically zero.
(2) Symmetry: X, Y Vec(M), [X, Y] = X Y Y X
Note: g is identically zero X (< Y, Z >) =< X Y, Z > + < Y, X Z >
The connection described above is called Levi-Civita connection.

4.1

Christoffel symbols of the connection

i j = kij k

For the Levi-Civita connection, g 0 gi,j;k = 0. Therefore,

!
1 il gkl gl j g jk
k
+

i j = g
2
x j
xk
xl
=0
A curve (t) is called a geodesic if (t)
(t)

Hamiltonian Mechanics

Euler-Lagrange Equation is a system of second-order, ordinary, differential equations.

We would like to change this into a system of first-order differential equations for two
reasons: (1) many theorems on differential equations are stated for systems of first-order
equations and (2) it is easier to discuss first-order equations in the context of manifolds.
We do this in the following way. Define the generalized momenta functionally by
pk =

L
q k

THe quantities pk are the components of the momentum vector, which is in fact an element
of T(t) Q . We can see this as follows, Let W be an n-dimensional vector space, and let
f : W R be any differentiable function. Then the differential d f~v at a point ~
v W is
a linear transformation d f~v : W R. Thus, by definition of the dual space, d f~v W .
Consequently, the differential d f gives a correspondence d f : W W via

n
X
f  i
 dx
~
v 7 d f~v =
i
x
~
v
i=1
Taking W as the vector space T(t) Q, the momentum at the point (t) be the vector
dL(q k ) T(t) Q . Hence, we can think of the momentum vector p as a covector field
along the curve given at each point by dL(q k ) .
Consider now the Hamiltonian function H defined by
H=

n
X

pk q k L(q1 , ...., qn , q 1 , ..., q n , t)

k=1

Since we can write the quantity q k in terms of the components pk , we can view the
Hamiltonian as a time-dependent function on TQ . Given any configuration space Q, we
define the cotangent bundle TQ as the phase space of the system. If Q is an n-dimensional
manifold, then TQ is a manifold of dimension 2n. Thus, the Hamiltons equations of motion
are
q k

H
pk

H
p k = q
k

5.1

Hamiltonian approach to the geodesic equations

Geodesics can be understood to be the Hamiltonian flows of a special Hamiltonian

vector field defined on the cotangent space of the manifold. The geodesic equations
are second-order differential equations; they can be re-expressed as first-order ordinary
differential equations taking the form of the HamiltonianJacobi equations by introducing

additional independent variables, as shown below. Start by finding a chart that trivializes
the cotangent bundle TQ (i.e. a local trivialization):
TQ |U ' U Rn
Then introduce the Hamiltonian as
H(q, p) =

1 ab
g (q)pa pb
2

Here, gab (q) is the inverse of the metric tensor: gab (q)gbc (q) = ac . The geodesic equations
can then be written as
q a

H
pa

= gab (q)pb

H
1
p a = q
a = 2

gbc (q)
pb pc
qa

The second order geodesic equations are easily obtained by substitution of one into the
other. The flow determined by these equations is called the cogeodesic flow. The first of
the two equations gives the flow on the tangent bundle TQ, the geodesic flow. Thus, the
geodesic lines are the projections of integral curves of the geodesic flow onto the manifold
Q. This is a Hamiltonian flow, and that the Hamiltonian is constant along the geodesics:
dH H a H a
= a q +
p = p a q a + p a q a = 0
dt
q
pa
Thus the geodesic flow splits the cotangent bundle into level sets of constant energy
QE = {(q, p) TQ : H(q, p) = E}
for each energy E 0, so that
TQ =

QE

E0

5.2

Poisson Bracket

In mathematics and classical mechanics, the Poisson bracket is an important binary

operation in Hamiltonian mechanics, playing a central role in Hamiltons equations of
motion, which govern the time-evolution of a Hamiltonian dynamical system. In canonical
coordinates (qi , p j ) on the phase space, given two functions f (pi , qi ) and g(pi , qi ), the Poisson
bracket takes the form
!
N
X
f g f g
{ f, g} =

q
pi qi
i pi
i=1
Hamiltons equations of motion have an equivalent expression in terms of the Poisson
bracket. This may be most directly demonstrated in an explicit coordinate frame. Suppose
that f (p, q) is a function on the manifold. Then from the multivariable chain rule,
f
f
d
f (p, q) =
q +
p
dt
q
p
7

Then, one has

d
f (p, q) =
dt

f H
q p

f H
p q

= { f, H}

Pontryagins Maximum Principle

Let u (t) be an optimal control and let x (t) be the corresponding trajectory. Then there
exists a function p (t) and a constant {0, 1}, satisfying (, p (t)) , (0, 0)t, such that:
1) x (t) and p (t) satisfy the canonical equations
x = Hp (x , u , p , )
p = Hx (x , u , p , )
with the boundary conditions x (t0 ) = x0 , x (t1 ) = x1 (t1 unspecified), where the Hamiltonian is defined as
H(x, u, p, ) := <p, f (x, u)> + L(x, u) u U , t [t0 , t1 ]
2) H(x (t), u (t), p (t), ) H(x (t), u(t), p (t), ) u U , t [t0 , t1 ]
3) H(x (t), u (t), p (t), ) 0, t [t0 , t1 ]

6.1

Normal and Abnormal Extremals

If = 0, the extremal is called abnormal extremal. Abnormal extremals do not directly

depend upon the cost. Existence of abnormal extremals is related to the controllability of
the system. = 1 corresponds to normal extremal. Normal extremals depend upon the
cost.

Rolling of Riemannian Manifolds

We use the Orbit Theorem and Pontryagin Maximum Principle to an intrinsic geometric
model of a pair of rolling rigid bodies. The main reult is: the system is completely
controllable iff the bodies are not isometric. We also state an optimal control problem
and study its extremals. Let us consider the following example of a sphere rolling on a plane,

7.1

Geometric Model

be two-dimensional manifolds - surfaces of the rolling bodies. Each of

Let M and M
these manifolds is endowed with Riemannian structure. Moreover, we suppose that the
their tangent
two manifolds are oriented. At contact points of the bodies x M and x M,
spaces are identified by an isometry

q : Tx M Tx M
An isometry q is a state of the system, and the state space is the connected 5-dimensional
manifold
n
o
| x M, x M,
q an isometry
Q = q : Tx M Tx M

Denote the projections from Q to M and M:

q : Tx M Tx M,

(q) = x, (q)
= x,

q Q, x M, x M

Choose arbitrary local orthonormal frames e1 , e2 on M and e1 , e2 on M:

<ei , e j >M = i j ,

<ei , e j >M = i j

i, j = 1, 2

Identification of tangent spaces at contact point

Denote by the angle of rotation from the frame e1 , e2 to the frame qe1 , qe2 at the contact
point:
qe1 = cos e1 + sin e2
qe2 = sin e1 + cos e2
we obtain local coordinates
Choosing local coordinates (x1 , x2 ) on M and (x1 , x2 ) on M,
(x1 , x2 , x1 , x2 , ) on Q.

7.2

Two-dimensional Riemannian geometry

For the 2-dimensional manifold, we describe Riemannian geodesics, Levi-Civita connection and parallel translation on TM  TM
7.2.1

Riemannian geodesics

For any fixed point x0 , x1 M, we seek for the shortest curve in M connecting x0 and x1 :
x = u1 e1 (x) + u2 e2 (x), x M, (u1 , u2 ) R2
x(0) = x0 , x(t1 ) = x1 ,
Zt1
Zt1
1/
1
x>
2 dt = (u21 + u22 ) /2 dt min.
l=
<x,
0

Earlier, we had shown that arc-length parameterized extremal trajectories, i.e. unit speed
trajectories in this problem (Riemannian geodesics) are projections of trajectories of the
normal Hamiltonian field and that the geodesic splits cotnagent bundle into level sets of
constant energy:
~

x(t) = etH (), H = {H = 1/2} TM ,

1
H = (h21 + h22 ),
2
hi () = <, ei > i = 1, 2.
10

The level surface H is a spherical bundle over M with a fiber

o
n
Hq = h21 + h22 = 1 Tq M  S1
parameterized by angle :

h1 = cos

h2 = sin

Cotangent bundle of a Riemannian manifold can be identified with tangent bundle via
the Riemannian strucutre:
TM  TM ,
v = <v, >
Then H is identified with the spherical bundle of unit tangent vectors to M.
S = {v TM | ||v|| = 1} TM
~

After this identification, etH can be considered as a geodesic flow on S.

7.2.2

Levi-Civita Connection

Levi-Civita connection is the unique connection on the spherical bundle S M such that:
(1) velocity of Riemannian geodesic is parallel along the geodesic,
(2) parallel translation preserves angle, i.e., horizontal lifts of vector fields on the base M

that determines the element of length in the fibder Sx .

commute with the vector field
Introduce the feedback-invariant frame on the manifold H :
!
"
#

~
~0 , H
~0 =
~ .
T H = span H,
,H
,H

We have,
~
H
~0
H






+ h2 e2 + c2
= h1 e1 + c1





= h2 e1 + c1
+ h1 e2 + c2

where ci are structure constants of the orthonormal frame on M:

[e1 , e2 ] = c1 e1 + c2 e2 ,

ci C (M)

~ = h1~h1 + h2~h2 in the tangent space of the manifold

Indeed, the component of the field H
M is equal to h1 e1 + h2 e2 . Properties (1) and (2) of the horizontal
distribution
D on H that


0
~
~
determines the Levi-Civita connection mean that D = span H, H .

11

7.3

Admissible Velocities

Let us return to the rolling manifolds problem and write down admissibility conditions
non-slipping and non-twisting for a curve q(t) Q as restricitons on velcity q(t).
Decompose
in the orthonormal frames:
velocities of the contact curves in M and M
x = a1 e1 (x) + a2 e2 (x),
+ a2 e2 (x).

x = a1 e1 (x)
Then the non-slipping condition reads:
a1 = a1 cos a2 sin ,

a2 = a1 sin + a2 cos .

be the mapping induced by the isometry q via identification of tangent

Let q : Tx M Tx M
and cotangent spaces. Since the isometry q(t) rotates the tangent spaces at the angle (t),
rotates the cotangent spaces at the same angle: (t)
= (t) + (t),
then the mapping q(t)
thus
= (t)
(t)

(t)
In the cotangent bundle, the non-twisting condition means that if


(t) = x(t), (t) H
is a parallel covector field along a curve x(t) M, then


= x(t),
(t)

(t)
H

M
is a parallel covector field along the curve x(t)
Summing up, the admissibility conditions for rolling bodies determine constraints along
contact curves, i.e., a rank two distribution on Q spanned locally by the vector fields

,
X1 = e1 + cos e1 + sin e2 + (c1 + c1 cos + c2 sin )

X2 = e2 sin e1 + cos e2 + (c2 c1 sin + c2 cos )

.

Admissible motions of the rolling bodies are trajectories of the control system
q = u1 X1 (q) + u2 X2 (q),

7.4

q Q,

u1 , u2 R.

Controllability

by k and k
Denote the Gaussian curvatures of the Riemannian manifolds M and M
to Q:
respectively. We lift these curvatures from M and M


k(q) = k (q) ,

= k (q)

k(q)
,

q Q.

ii
h h
~ H,
~ = k , where k is the curvature of the manifold.
Corollary: H,

12

Now, we state the main result:

Theorem: The reachable set O of the rolling system from a point q Q is an immersed
smooth connected submanifold of Q with dimension equal to 2 or 5. Specifically:

 
k k O 0 dimO = 2,

 
k k O . 0 dimO = 5.
Proof: The above theorem is a direct application of Orbit theorem. By the Orbit theorem,
the reachable set of any symmetric system, i.e., the orbit of the distribution through any
point q Q, is an immersed smooth connected submanifold of Q. Now we show that any
orbit O of has dimension either 2 or 5.
Comuping iterated Lie brakcets of the fields X1 , X2 :


,
X3 = [X1 , X2 ] = c1 X1 + c2 X2 + k k

X4 = [X1 , X3 ]
"
#
 




= (X1 c1 )X1 + (X1 c2 )X2 + c2 X3 + X1 k k

+ k k X1 ,
,

X5 = [X2 , X3 ]
"
#

 



= (X2 c1 )X1 + (X2 c2 )X2 c1 X3 + X2 k k

+ k k X2 ,
,

It is easy to see that,

!

span (X1 , X2 , X3 , X4 , X5 ) = span e1 , e2 , e1 , e2 ,

= Tq Q.

thus dimO = 5. On the

The rolling system has the full rank at the point q O where k , k,

other hand, if k(q) = k(q) at all points q O, implies that the distribution is integrable,
thus dimO = 2. 

7.5
7.5.1

Length Minimization Problem: Optimal Control

Problem Statement

x)
i.e., k k , 0 on Q. Then, by above
for any x M, x M,
Suppose that k(x) , k(
theorem, the rolling system is controllable. The length minimization problem is stated as
the following optimal control problem:
q = u1 X1 + u2 X2 , q Q u = (u1 , u2 ) R2 ,
q(0) = q0 , q(t1 ) = q1 , t1 f ixed,
Zt1
l = (u21 + u22 )1/2 dt min.
0

13

 read respectively as
Notice that projections of ODE to M and M
x = u1 e1 + u2 e2 , x M,
x = u1 (cos e1 + sin e2 ) + u2 ( sin e1 + cos e2 ) ,

x M,

As usual, we replace the length l by the action:

1
J=
2

Zt1
(u21 + u22 )dt min,
0

and restrict ourselves to constant velocity curves:

u21 + u22 const , 0.
7.5.2

Maximum Principle

As we showed in the proof of the Theorem, the vector fields X1 , . . . , X5 form a frame on
Q. Denote the corresponding Hamiltonians linear on fibers in TQ :
gi () = <, Xi >,

TQ ,

i = 1, . . . , 5.

Then the Hamiltonian of PMP reads

H = u1 g1 () + u2 g2 () + (u21 + u22 ),
2
and the corresponding Hamiltonian system is
= u1 ~g1 () + u2 ~g2 (),

7.6

TQ

Results

For a sphere rolling on a plane, it turns out that the point of contact of the sphere rolling
optimally traces Euler elastica on the plane.

7.7

Conclusion

We saw how Orbit Theorem and Pontryagin Maximum Principle can be used to analyze the motion of a pair of rolling rigid bodies. We obtained an exact condition on the
curvatures of the two manifolds for the rolling system to be controllable. Summing up,

Rolling has many interesting properties.

Rolling is basically parallel transport.
Rolling problems are mathematically challenging and have many interesting applications, for example, Parallel parking.
Rolling manifolds embedded in non-Euclidean spaces is almost an untouchable area.
14

Euler Elastica

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