Odd elasticity in a three-link microswimmer: feedback equivalence, global controllability, and the cost of non-reciprocity

Abstract

We study a Purcell three-link microswimmer whose joints are \emph{odd-elastic}: the torsional stiffness is non-Hermitian, its antisymmetric part $k_o$ injecting mechanical work so that the internal elastic drift is non-conservative. Our main finding is a sharp separation between geometry and cost --- odd elasticity is invisible to the control geometry of the swimmer and visible only in the energy of a manoeuvre. The mechanism is a single algebraic fact: the drift lies in the span of the two control vector fields, so the system is feedback-equivalent to a driftless one and the odd modulus enters the bracket structure only through the scalar $\det\textbf{K}=k^2+k_o^2$. From this we deduce that the abnormal extremals of the energy problem are unchanged by $k_o$, that the swimmer is globally controllable for every non-reciprocity with no threshold, and that its nilpotent model is the Cartan $(2,3,5)$ sub-Riemannian structure, deformed only by the metric scaling $g_χ=(1+χ^2)g_0$. The odd modulus acts solely on the cost: casting the optimal-steering problem in sub-Finsler (Randers) form, we prove that a prescribed reorientation is strictly cheaper for either sign of $k_o$. Full Resistive-Force-Theory simulations confirm the analysis and reveal that at isotropic drag the swimmer becomes a pure rotator, turning without translating.