Stable Periodic Motion of a System Using Echo for Position Control

We study a system of equations which is based on Newton's law and models automatic position control by echo. Rewritten as a delay differential equation with state-dependent delay the model defines a semiflow on a submanifold in the space of continuously differentiable maps [-h, 0] → ℝ2. All time-t maps and the restriction of the semiflow given by t > h are continuously differentiable. For simple nonlinearities and suitable parameters we find a set of initial data to which the solution curves return, after an excursion into the ambient manifold. The associated return map is semiconjugate to an interval map. Estimates of derivatives yield a unique, attracting fixed point of the latter, which can be lifted to the return map. The proof that the resulting periodic orbit is stable and exponentially attracting with asymptotic phase involves a Poincaré return map and a discussion of derivatives of its iterates.