Rigid Body with Rotors and Reduction by Stages

Abstract

Rigid body with rotors is a widespread mechanical system modeled after the direct product $SO(3)\times S^1\times S^1\times S^1$, which under mild assumptions is the symmetry group of the system. In this paper, the authors present and compare different Lagrangian reduction procedures: Euler-Poincar\'e reduction by the whole group and reduction by stages in different orders or using different connections. The exposition keeps track of the equivalence of equations as well as corresponding conservation laws.