A Generic Classification of Time-Optimal Planar Stabilizing Feedbacks

Consider the problem of stabilization at the origin in minimum time for a planar control system affine with respect to the control. For a family of generic vector fields, a topological equivalence relation on the corresponding time-optimal feedback synthesis was introduced in a previous paper [Dynamics of Continuous, Discrete and Impulsive Systems, 3 (1997), pp. 335--371]. The set of equivalence classes can be put in a one-to-one correspondence with a discrete family of graphs. This provides a classification of the global structure of generic time-optimal stabilizing feedbacks in the plane, analogous to the classification of smooth dynamical systems developed by Peixoto.