Stochastic optimal linear feedback control systems using available measurements

The stochastic optimal control of linear systems with time-varying and partially observable parameters is synthesized under noisy measurements and a quadratic performance criterion. The structure of the regulator is given, and the optimal solution is reduced to a two-point boundary-value problem. Comments on the numerical solution by appropriate integration schemes is included.     

Stochastic maximum principle in the optimal control of water resources systems

This work deals with the optimal control of stochastic water resources systems by the discrete stochastic maximum principle. This method is successfully applied to find analytic optimal solutions for water resources systems receiving independent stochastic inflows. The purpose is to optimize linear or quadratic objective functions subject to constraints imposed both on the state and decision variables. Two types of objective functions, one expressed in terms of correlated benefit functions and the other consisting of state and decision variables, are considered.     

Stabilization analysis of time-delay Hamiltonian systems in the presence of saturation

The stabilization of a class of Hamiltonian systems with state time-delay and input saturation is addressed in this paper. Sufficient conditions are derived by using Lyapunov-Krasovskii functional theorem to guarantee the systems as well as the resulted closed-loop systems by output feedback to be asymptotically stable when input saturation effectively occurs. A numerical example is presented to illustrate the effectiveness of the obtained results in this paper.     

Suboptimal control of nonlinear time-delay systems

An interative method for the suboptimal control of nonlinear time-delay systems is presented. Polynomial forms are assumed for the state in cases with delay in the state only and for the control in other cases. The coefficients in the approximating polynomial are chosen by a direct search method.Many discussions with Dr. S. Narayana Iyer, Professor of Electrical Engineering, College of Engineering, Trivandrum, India, are gratefully acknowledged.     

A semi-analytical direct optimal control solution for strongly excited and dissipative Hamiltonian systems

A semi-analytical direct optimal control solution for strongly excited and dissipative Hamiltonian systems is proposed based on the extended Hamiltonian principle, the Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman (HJB) equation and its variational integral equation, and the finite time element approximation. The differential extended Hamiltonian equations for structural vibration systems are replaced by the variational integral equation, which can preserve intrinsic system structure. The optimal control law dependent on the value function is determined by the HJB equation so as to satisfy the overall optimality principle. The partial differential equation for the value function is converted into the integral equation with variational weighting. Then the successive solution of optimal control with system state is designed. The two variational integral equations are applied to sequential time elements and transformed into the algebraic equations by using the finite time element approximation. The direct optimal control on each time element is obtained respectively by solving the algebraic equations, which is unconstrained by the system state observed. The proposed control algorithm is applicable to linear and nonlinear systems with the quadratic performance index, and takes into account the effects of external excitations measured on control. Numerical examples are given to illustrate the optimal control effectiveness.     

Guaranteed cost control of time-delay chaotic systems

This article studies a guaranteed cost control problem for a class of time-delay chaotic systems. Attention is focused on the design of memory state feedback controllers such that the resulting closed-loop system is asymptotically stable and an adequate level of performance is also guaranteed. Using the Lyapunov method and LMI (linear matrix inequality) framework, two criteria for the existence of the controller are derived in terms of LMIs. A numerical example is given to illustrate the proposed method.     

Stochastic optimal control of DC pension funds

In this paper, we study the portfolio problem of a pension fund manager who wants to maximize the expected utility of the terminal wealth in a complete financial market with the stochastic interest rate. Using the method of stochastic optimal control, we derive a non-linear second-order partial differential equation for the value function. As it is difficult to find a closed form solution, we transform the primary problem into a dual one by applying a Legendre transform and dual theory, and try to find an explicit solution for the optimal investment strategy under the logarithm utility function. Finally, a numerical simulation is presented to characterize the dynamic behavior of the optimal portfolio strategy.     

Observer-based optimal fault detection using PDFs for time-delay stochastic systems

This paper concerns the problem of fault detection (FD) for general stochastic systems with time delays. Different from the classical FD problem, the available information for the FD is the input and the measured output probability density functions (PDFs) of the system. Based on this, firstly, square root B-spline expansions technique is applied to model the PDFs so that the concerned FD problem is transformed into a nonlinear FD problem subject to the weight dynamical systems. Secondly, by using the FD observer as residual generator and guaranteed cost performance index as objective function, design of the FD observer is formulated as an optimization problem. A delay-dependent condition to solve this problem is established in terms of the feasibility of linear matrix inequality (LMI). Moreover, in order to improve FD performance, the guaranteed cost algorithm is applied to optimal observer design. Finally, two examples are given to demonstrate the applicability of the proposed approach.     

Stochastic control of funding systems

This paper is concerned with funding systems, i.e. systems which accumulate funds for the future payment of financial obligations. Commonly, such funding requires a balance between (1) the desire to minimise the contributions that need to be diverted from other use to the support of the Fund, and (2) the need to maintain reasonable solvency in the Fund.Such funding is discussed here in a general framework. Applications are numerous. The specific applications mentioned in the paper are:

• Defined benefit retirement funding,

• Maintenance of a prudential margin by a non-life insurer,

• Dividend payment strategy.

The paper applies stochastic optimal control theory to determine how rates of contribution to the Fund and allocation of its assets by asset sector should respond to changing solvency. These results are obtainable from a particular differential equation, which may be solved numerically. Detailed numerical examples are provided.     

An optimal linear-quadratic digital tracker for analog neutral time-delay systems

^** Email: shtsai{at}mail.ncku.edu.tw In this paper, an optimal hybrid tracking control problem forcontinuous neutral time-delay systems is formulated and studied.An optimal linear integral quadratic cost function that hasa high-gain property is used for tracking control specification.Two interpolation methods are applied to directly convert theoriginal analog neutral time-delay system into an equivalentdigital retarded time-delay system, and meanwhile convert thecontinuous-time quadratic cost function into a discretized form.Then, an extended state vector is constructed for an associateextended discrete-time optimal control problem without timedelay. Using the standard discrete-time linear-quadratic optimalcontrol theory and an indirect digital redesign technique witha predictive feature, an effective digital tracker is designedfor the original analog neutral time-delay system. An exampleis finally given for illustrating the effectiveness of the newtracker design method.     

Optimal control of time-delay systems with distributed parameters

An optimal control problem with a prescribed performance index for parabolic systems with time delays is investigated. A necessary condition for optimality is formulated and proved in the form of a maximum principle. Under additional conditions, the maximum principle gives sufficient conditions for optimality. It is also shown that the optimal control is unique. As an illustration of the theoretical consideration, an analytic solution is obtained for a time-delayed diffusion system.The author wishes to express his deep gratitude to Professors J. M. Sloss and S. Adali for the valuable guidance and constant encouragement during the preparation of this paper.     

Stochastic maximum principle for optimal control of SPDEs

In this Note, we give the stochastic maximum principle for optimal control of stochastic PDEs in the general case (when the control domain need not be convex and the diffusion coefficient can contain a control variable).     

Stochastic optimal control of internal hierarchical labor markets

This paper develops an optimal control model for a graded manpower system where the demand for manpower is uncertain. The organization's objective is to minimize the discounted costs of operating the manpower system, including excess demand costs. The stock of workers in various grades can be adjusted in two ways. The first method is outside hiring flows, which is the usual control variable used in previous research. The second method is to control the transition rates between grades of the hierarchy, an instrument not previously studied. Incorporating the transition rates into the control variables creates time lags in the control process. The resulting problem is solved numerically using an approximation for the time-lagged control variables. The numerical example is based on the Air Force officer hierarchy. The model is used to examine such issues as the desirability of granting tenure to workers who are not promoted to the highest grade and the effects of length-of-service and demand uncertainty on manpower policy.     

Hybrid event-triggered and impulsive control for time-delay systems

In this paper, we study the problem of hybrid event-triggered control for a class of nonlinear time-delay systems. Using a Razumikhin-type input-to-state stability result for time-delay systems, we design an event-triggered control algorithm to stabilize the given time-delay system. In order to exclude Zeno behavior, we combine the impulsive control mechanism with our event-triggered strategy. In this sense, the proposed algorithm is a hybrid impulsive and event-triggered strategy. Sufficient conditions for the stabilization of the nonlinear systems with time delay are obtained by using Lyapunov method and Razumikhin technique. Numerical simulations are provided to show the effectiveness of our theoretical results.     

Stochastic optimal control on dividend policies with bankruptcy

ABSTRACT

When a firm is at the edge of bankruptcy, it would endeavour to attract bailouts from governments or financial institutions to cast off bad situation. If this effort fails, then the firm would face to sell off their properties to pay their debts to loaners or shareholders. In this paper, from these two cases of bankruptcy, two optimal dividend policies are considered and analysed, respectively. In the case of unrestricted dividend payment rate, a terminal bankruptcy model with non-zero terminal value is put forward. An analytic solution for the optimal objective function, which maximizes the expected value of total discounted dividends before bankruptcy and the residual value at bankruptcy, is provided and verified. As a significant application, a non-terminal bankruptcy problem with bailouts is considered, an explicit solution and the corresponding control policies are also obtained. In the end, some numerical examples are listed and the influence of the recovery rate on the optimal strategies is also discussed.     

Optimal guaranteed cost control of uncertain discrete time-delay systems

This paper considers the problem of robust guaranteed cost control of linear discrete time-delay systems with parametric uncertainties. By matrix inequality approach, the robust quadratic stability of the system is studied. A control design method is developed such that the closed-loop system with a cost function has a upper bound irrespective of all admissible parameter uncertainties and unknown time delays. Furthermore, the upper bound (cost) can be optimized by incorporating with a minimization problem. A numerical example is given to show the potential of the proposed techniques.     

Iterative learning control design of nonlinear multiple time-delay systems

Most available results on iterative learning control address trajectory tracking problem for systems without multiple time-delay. This paper is concerned with iterative learning control design for nonlinear systems with multiple delays, in which external disturbances and output measurement noises are involved. We obtain some new and interesting criteria to guarantee the convergence of the tracking error in the sense of the λ − norm. It will be shown that the convergence of the system outputs to the desired trajectory is ensured in the absence of disturbances and output measurement noises. In the presence of disturbance and measurement noises, we estimate the upper bound of the tracking error. In order to confirm the validity of the present results, numerical simulation is also presented.     

Delay systems and optimal control

0. IntroductionIt is well known that evolution systems are an important class of distributed parametersystems and the optimal control of infinite dimensional systems is a remarkable subjectin control theory. Some authors including us investigated the existence of solutions orperiodic solutions (see [l--4] or [5,6] ). To the knowledge of the authors, optimal controls fordistributed parameter delay systems have not been extensively studied. Li and Yao obtaina maximum principle (see [7]). Here w…