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On the mobility and efficiency of mechanical systems

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 July 2007

Gershon Wolansky*
Affiliation:
Department of mathematics, Haifa 32000, Israel; [email protected]
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Abstract

It is shown that self-locomotion is possible for a body in Euclidian space,provided its dynamics corresponds to a non-quadratic Hamiltonian,and that the body contains at least 3 particles. The efficiencyof the driver of such a system is defined. The existence of anoptimal (most efficient) driver is proved.


Type
Research Article
Copyright
© EDP Sciences, SMAI, 2007

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