Improved Optimal Control Methods Based Upon the Adjoining Cell Mapping Technique

In this paper, cell mapping methods are studied and refined for the optimal control of autonomous dynamical systems. First, the method proposed by Hsu (Ref. 1) is analyzed and some improvements are presented. Second, adjoining cell mapping (ACM), based on an adaptive time of integration (Refs. 2–3), is formulated as an alternative technique for computing optimal control laws of nonlinear systems, employing the cellular state-space approximation. This technique overcomes the problem of determining an appropriate duration of the integration time for the simple cell mapping method and provides a suitable mapping for the search procedures. Artificial intelligence techniques, together with some improvements on the original formulation lead to a very efficient algorithm for computing optimal control laws with ACM (CACM). Several examples illustrate the performance of the CACM algorithm.     

Domain Decomposition,Optimal Control of Systems Governed by Partial Differential Equations,and Synthesis of Feedback Laws

We present an iterative domain decomposition method for the optimal control of systems governed by linear partial differential equations. The equations can be of elliptic, parabolic, or hyperbolic type. The space region supporting the partial differential equations is decomposed and the original global optimal control problem is reduced to a sequence of similar local optimal control problems set on the subdomains. The local problems communicate through transmission conditions, which take the form of carefully chosen boundary conditions on the interfaces between the subdomains. This domain decomposition method can be combined with any suitable numerical procedure to solve the local optimal control problems. We remark that it offers a good potential for using feedback laws (synthesis) in the case of time-dependent partial differential equations. A test problem for the wave equation is solved using this combination of synthesis and domain decomposition methods. Numerical results are presented and discussed. Details on discretization and implementation can be found in Ref. 1.     

Extensions of the generalized moment theorem and applications to distributed-parameter control systems

In this paper, we present extensions to the generalized moment theorem and apply it to optimal control problems for a certain class of distributed-parameter systems. We also apply it to the time-optimal control problem and extend the results of Ref. 1 pertaining to the largest controllable set, so that we can discuss the problem of recoverability for some distributed-parameter systems.The author wishes to express his gratitude to Professor P. K. C. Wang for his guidance and suggestions.     

Boundary arcs for a class of differential games

The behavior of boundary arcs of the attainable set is discussed for a class of differential games, and first-order necessary conditions are obtained. The method is a simple extension of that used by Hestenes (Ref. 1) in relating the behavior of boundary arcs for optimal control problems to the maximum principle.Portions of this work were sponsored by the Douglas Aircraft Company, Independent Research and Development Fund No. 80421-021/39051.     

Passive optimal control of an antisymmetric angle-ply laminate

Using the maximum principle of Ref. 1, a procedure to find numerical solutions of certain optimal control problems is given. As an application of this procedure, the optimal control of an antisymmetric angle-ply laminate is worked out in detail. Numerical solutions are given in the form of graphs.     

Necessary and sufficient conditions for bang-bang control

Necessary and sufficient conditions for the optimal control to be bang-bang are presented for a nonlinear system. The payoff, which is not necessarily quadratic, is assumed to be described by a Hilbert-space norm and to be differentiable and convex. The results are extensions of Ref. 1 to the case of nonlinear systems.     

A strong variational algorithm for delay systems

In this paper, we present a convergent extension of the first-order strong-variational algorithm by Mayne and Polak (Ref. 1) for solving optimal control problems with control constraints to delay systems. Although the algorithm is similar to the one presented in Ref. 1, the proof of convergence is different, since the differential dynamic techniques used by Mayne and Polak are not applicable.This work forms part of the author's PhD Dissertation and was conducted at the Imperial College of Science and Technology under a studentship awarded by the UK Science and Engineering Research Council. This assistance is gratefully acknowledged. The author also wishes to thank Dr. R. B. Vinter for his encouragement and help.     

Nonlinearly constrained time-delayed optimal control problems

A computational algorithm for solving a class of optimal control problems involving terminal and continuous state constraints of inequality type was developed in Ref. 1. In this paper, we extend the results of Ref. 1 to a more general class of constrained time-delayed optimal control problems, which involves terminal state equality constraints as well as terminal state inequality constraints and continuous state constraints. Two examples have been solved to illustrate the efficiency of the method.     

Impulsive optimal control with finite or infinite time horizon

We consider a dynamical system subjected to feedback optimal control in such a way that the evolution of the state exhibits both sudden jumps and continuous changes. Previously obtained necessary conditions (Ref. 1) for such impulsive optimal feedback controls are generalized to admit the case of infinite time horizon; this generalization permits application to a wider class of problems. The results are illustrated by application to a version of the innkeeper's problem.Dedicated to G. Leitmann     

On constraint controllability of linear systems in Banach spaces

In this paper, we give an addendum to a result of Dolecki and Russell (Ref. 1) related to the duality relationship between observation and control for linear systems in Banach spaces. Our results relate the controllability of a system to the constraint controllability of that system and to the observability of an adjoint system. The main tool used here is an extension of the classical open mapping theorem.     

Multi-objective optimal design of feedback controls for dynamical systems with hybrid simple cell mapping algorithm

This paper presents a study of multi-objective optimal design of full state feedback controls. The goal of the design is to minimize several conflicting performance objective functions at the same time. The simple cell mapping method with a hybrid algorithm is used to find the multi-objective optimal design solutions. The multi-objective optimal design comes in a set of gains representing various compromises of the control system. Examples of regulation and tracking controls are presented to validate the control design.     

Mixed L 2-Wasserstein Optimal Mapping Between Prescribed Density Functions

A time-dependent minimization problem for the computation of a mixed L ²-Wasserstein distance between two prescribed density functions is introduced in the spirit of Ref. 1 for the classical Wasserstein distance. The optimum of the cost function corresponds to an optimal mapping between prescribed initial and final densities. We enforce the final density conditions through a penalization term added to our cost function. A conjugate gradient method is used to solve this relaxed problem. We obtain an algorithm which computes an interpolated L ²-Wasserstein distance between two densities and the corresponding optimal mapping.     

Economic Characterization of Reciprocal Isoperimetric Control Problems Revisited

Theorem 2.1 of Caputo (Ref. 1) linking the optimal solution functions and optimal value functions of reciprocal pairs of isoperimetric control problems is correct, but requires stronger assumptions than those used explicitly to establish its veracity. One such set of stronger assumptions is provided in this note.     

Near-Optimal Controls of a Class of Volterra Integral Systems

In a recent paper by Zhou (Ref. 1), the concept of near-optimal controls was introduced for a class of optimal control problems involving ordinary differential equations. Necessary and sufficient conditions for near-optimal controls were derived. This paper extends the results obtained by Zhou to a class of optimal control problems involving Volterra integral equations. The results are applied to study near-optimal controls obtained by the control parametrization method.     

Conjugate Intervals for the Linear Fixed-Endpoint Control Problem

For certain optimal control problems with piecewise continuous controls, recently Loewen and Zheng (Ref. 1) and Zeidan (Ref. 2) defined two sets of generalized conjugate points for which, under normality assumptions, the second-order conditions in terms of the accessory problem imply their emptiness. However, simple examples show that checking the existence of such points may be more difficult than directly finding variations that make the second variation negative. In this paper, for the linear fixed-endpoint control problem, we introduce a new set whose emptiness is equivalent to the nonnegativity of the second variation along admissible variations. Moreover, we achieve by means of this set the main objective of introducing a characterization of this condition, namely, to obtain a simpler way of verifying it.     

A Generalized Conjugate Gradient Algorithm

We present modifications of the generalized conjugate gradient algorithm of Liu and Storey for unconstrained optimization problems (Ref. 1), extending its applicability to situations where the search directions are not defined. The use of new search directions is proposed and one additional condition is imposed on the inexact line search. The convergence of the resulting algorithm can be established under standard conditions for a twice continuously differentiable function with a bounded level set. Algorithms based on these modifications have been tested on a number of problems, showing considerable improvements. Comparisons with the BFGS and other quasi-Newton methods are also given.     

Topological stability of linear semi-infinite inequality systems

In this note, we analyze the relationship between the lower semicontinuity of the feasible set mapping for linear semi-infinite inequality systems and the so-called topological stability, which is held when the solution sets of all the systems obtained by sufficiently small perturbations of the data are homeomorphic to each other. This topological stability and its relation with the Mangasarian-Fromovitz constraints qualification have been studied deeply by Jongen et al. in Ref. 1. The main difference of our approach is that we are not assuming any kind of structure for the index set and, consequently, any particular property for the functional dependence between the inequalities and the associated indices. In addition, we deal with systems whose solution sets are not necessarily bounded.This work has been supported partially by the DGICYT of Spain, Grant PB93-0943, by Generalitat Valenciana, Grant GV-2219/94, and by IVEI, Grant 003/026.The authors would like to thank J. E. Martínez Legaz for his valuable comments.     

An Extension of the Coordinate Transformation Method for Open-Loop Nash Equilibria

In Leitmann (Ref. 1), a coordinate transformation method was introduced to obtain global solutions for free problems in the calculus of variations. This direct method was extended and broadened in Carlson (Ref. 2) and later in Leitmann (Ref. 3). The applicability of the original work of Leitmann (Ref. 1) was further developed in Dockner and Leitmann (Ref. 4) to include the class of open-loop dynamic games. In the present work, we improve the results of Ref. 4 in two directions. First, we enlarge the class of open-loop dynamic games to permit coupling among the dynamic equations via the states of the players; second, we incorporate the modifications given in Refs. 2 and 3. Our results greatly increase the applicability of this method. An example arising from the harvesting of a renewable resource is presented to illustrate the utility of our results.     

二级线性价格控制问题的满意解的求解思路及实例

本文就文献 [1]对线性二级价格控制问题 (BLP) 2 研究的结果及文献 [2 ]提出的问题进行了进一步的讨论。用反例指出文 [1]求出的极点最优解是错的 ,以及一般的 (BL P) 2 问题求出的最优解 ,可能是下层决策者根本无法接受的。因此 ,本文提出 (BLP) 2 的求下层目标最优解的边界搜索法及在此基础上用多目标的观点来求 (BLP) 2 的满意解的思路及实例     

On the Optimal Stabilisation for a set of Programmed Motions of the Bilinear Control System

During recent years there has been considerable interest in using bilinear systems [1, 2] as mathematical models to represent the dynamic behavior of a wide class of engineering, biological and economic systems. Moreover, there are some methods [3] which may approximate nonlinear control systems by bilinear systems. For the first time Zubov has proposed a method of stabilization control synthesis for a set of programmed motions in linear systems [4]. In papers [5, 6] this method has been developed and used to solve the same problem for bilinear systems. In the present paper the following problems are considered. First, synthesis of nonlinear control as feedback under which the bilinear control system has a given set of programmed and asymptotic stable motions. Because this control is not unique, the second problem concerns optimal stabilization. In this paper a method for the design of nonlinear optimal control is suggested. This control is constructed in the form of a convergent series. The theorem on the sufficient conditions to solve this problem is represented.