Based on the Cauchy-Kowalevski theorem for a system of partial differential equations to be integrable, a kind of generalized Birkhoffian systems (GBSs) with local, analytic properties are put forward, whose manifold admits a presymplectic structure described by a closed 2-form which is equivalent to the self-adjointness of the GBSs. Their relations with Birkhoffian systems, generalized Hamiltonian systems are investigated in detail. Analytic, algebraic and geometric properties of GBSs are formulated,...

In this survey article, nonholonomic mechanics is presented as a part of geometric mechanics. We follow a geometric setting where the constraint manifold is a submanifold in a jet bundle, and a nonholonomic system is modelled as an exterior differential system on the constraint manifold. The approach admits to apply coordinate independent methods, and is not limited to Lagrangian systems under linear constraints. The new methods apply to general (possibly nonconservative) mechanical systems subject...

We study stochastically perturbed non-holonomic systems from a geometric point of view. In this setting, it turns out that the probabilistic properties of the perturbed system are intimately linked to the geometry of the constraint distribution. For $G$-Chaplygin systems, this yields a stochastic criterion for the existence of a smooth preserved measure. As an application of our results we consider the motion planning problem for the noisy two-wheeled robot and the noisy snakeboard.