On strong controllability for planar affine nonlinear systems

Different to linear systems, a controllable nonlinear system does not generally imply that it is strongly controllable. This paper will investigate the strong controllability of planar affine nonlinear systems and obtain its necessary and sufficient condition by introducing the variation function of the control curve. These conditions are imposed on the system structure only. In addition, we also point out that, for a class of polynomial systems, their strong controllability is equivalent to their controllability. Finally, some examples are given to show the application of our results.