Sufficient conditions for a strong relative minimum in an optimal control problem

In this paper, on the basis of Young's method (Ref. 1), sufficient conditions for a strong relative minimum in an optimal control problem are given. Young's method generalizes geodesic coverings and the simplest Hilbert integral from the standard variational calculus. This paper carries Young's method over to nonparametric problems.     

Sufficient optimality conditions for nonconvex control problems with state constraints

The sufficient optimality conditions of Zeidan for optimal control problems (Refs. 1 and 2) are generalized such that they are applicable to problems with pure state-variable inequality constraints. We derive conditions which neither assume the concavity of the Hamiltonian nor the quasiconcavity of the constraints. Global as well as local optimality conditions are presented.     

Sufficient conditions for asymptotic optimal control

For a selected family of Lagrange-type control problems involving a nonnegative integral costJ _T (y,u) over the interval [0,T], 0<T<, with system conditions consisting of differential inequalities and/or equalities, the following material is treated: (i) a resumé of relevant necessary conditions and sufficient conditions for a pair (y _T ,u _T ) to minimizeJ _T (y,u); (ii) conditions sufficient for the convergence asT of minimizing pairs (y _T ,u _T ) over [0,T] to a limit pair (y ,u ) over the infinite-time interval [0, ); (iii) conditions sufficient for (y ,u ) to minimize the costJ (y,u) over [0, ); and (iv) conditions sufficient for the optimal cost per unit timeJ _T (y _T ,u _T )/T to have a limit asT.     

Sufficient optimality conditions and duality for a quasiconvex programming problem

Under differentiability assumptions, Fritz John Sufficient optimality conditions are proved for a nonlinear programming problem in which the objective function is assumed to be quasiconvex and the constraint functions are assumed to quasiconcave/strictly pseudoconcave. Duality theorems are proved for Mond-Weir type duality under the above generalized convexity assumptions.The first author is thankful to the Natural Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada for financial support through Grant No. A-5319. The authors are thankful to Professor B. Mond for suggestions that improved the original draft of the paper.     

Sufficient conditions for optimal control problems with time delay

Various first-order and second-order sufficient conditions of optimality for nonlinear optimal control problems with delayed argument are formulated. The functions involved are not required to be convex. Second-order sufficient conditions are shown to be related to the existence of solutions of a Riccati-type matrix differential inequality. Their relation with the second variation is discussed.The authors are indebted to an anonymous referee for valuable suggestions that lead to various improvements in the paper.     

Sufficient conditions for a minimum of the free-final-time optimal control problem

The sufficient conditions for a minimum of the free-final-time optimal control problem are the strengthened Legendre-Clebsch condition and the conjugate point condition. In this paper, a new approach for determining the location of the conjugate point is presented. The sweep method is used to solve the linear two-point boundary-value problem for the neighboring extremal path from a perturbed initial point to the final constraint manifold. The new approach is to solve for the final condition Lagrange multiplier perturbation and the final time perturbation simultaneously. Then, the resulting neighboring extremal control is used to write the second variation as a perfect square and obtain the conjugate point condition. Finally, two example problems are solved to illustrate the application of the sufficient conditions.     

Sufficient conditions for the optimal control of a class of systems with continuous lags

Sufficient conditions in the form of a maximum principle are obtained for the optimal control of a system described by integro-differential equations and subject to some specified path constraints. The conditions are relaxed to allow for jumps in the adjoint variables at the junction points, provided a certain convexity hypothesis is satisfied for the constraint set at these points.This research was partially supported at Stanford University by the Office of Naval Research, Contract No. N-00014-67-A-0112-0011, by the National Science Foundation, Grant No. GP-31393, and by the US Atomic Energy Commission, Contract No. AT(04-3)-326-PA-18. It was also supported by the Department of Economics at Rice University.     

Generalized Bellman-Hamilton-Jacobi optimality conditions for a control problem with a boundary condition

In this paper we study conditions for optimality of a deterministic control problem where the state of the system is required to stop at the boundary. Using the Clarke generalized gradient, we refine the classical verification theorem and show that it is not only sufficient but also necessary for optimality. It is also shown that the solution to the generalized Bellman-Jacobi-Hamilton equation involving the Clarke generalized gradient is unique among the class of regular functions.     

Second-order sufficient conditions for control problems with mixed control-state constraints

References 1–4 develop second-order sufficient conditions for local minima of optimal control problems with state and control constraints. These second-order conditions tighten the gap between necessary and sufficient conditions by evaluating a positive-definiteness criterion on the tangent space of the active constraints. The purpose of this paper is twofold. First, we extend the methods in Refs. 3, 4 and include general boundary conditions. Then, we relate the approach to the two-norm approach developed in Ref. 5. A direct sufficiency criterion is based on a quadratic function that satisfies a Hamilton-Jacobi inequality. A specific form of such a function is obtained by applying the second-order sufficient conditions to a parametric optimization problem. The resulting second-order positive-definiteness conditions can be verified by solving Riccati equations.The authors wish to thank K. Malanowski for helpful discussions.     

Semiconcavity of the value function for the Bolza control problem

In this paper we investigate the regularity of the value function of the Bolza control problem. We propose sufficient conditions for the value function to be semiconcave or locally Lipschitz when the controls are unbounded.     

A Note on First-Order Sufficient Optimality Conditions for Pareto Problems

We take into consideration the first-order sufficient conditions, established by Jiménez and Novo (Numer. Funct. Anal. Optim. 2002; 23:303–322) for strict local Pareto minima. We give here a more operative condition for a strict local Pareto minimum of order 1.     

Sufficient optimality conditions for multidimensional optimal control problems with mixed constraints governed by an elliptic PDE

In this article, the idea of a dual dynamic programming is applied to the optimal control problems with multiple integrals governed by a semi-linear elliptic PDE and mixed state-control constraints. The main result called a verification theorem provides the new sufficient conditions for optimality in terms of a solution to the dual equation of a multidimensional dynamic programming. The optimality conditions are also obtained by using the concept of an optimal dual feedback control. Besides seeking the exact minimizers of problems considered some kind of an approximation is given and the sufficient conditions for an approximated optimal pair are derived.     

Additional necessary conditions for optimal control with state-variable inequality constraints

It is shown that, when the set of necessary conditions for an optimal control problem with state-variable inequality constraints given by Bryson, Denham, and Dreyfus is appropriately augmented, it is equivalent to the (different) set of conditions given by Jacobson, Lele, and Speyer. Relationships among the various multipliers are given.This work was done at NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, California, under a National Research Council Associateship.     

No-gap optimality conditions for an optimal control problem with pointwise control-state constraints

An optimal control problem with pointwise mixed constraints of the instationary three-dimensional Navier–Stokes–Voigt equations is considered. We derive second-order optimality conditions and show that there is no gap between second-order necessary optimality conditions and second-order sufficient optimality conditions. In addition, the second-order sufficient optimality conditions for the problem where the objective functional does not contain a Tikhonov regularization term are also discussed.     

Optimal control problems for the equation of motion of membrane with strong viscosity

Optimal control problems are studied for the equation of membrane with strong viscosity. The Gâteaux differentiability of solution mapping on control variables is proved and the various types of necessary optimality conditions corresponding to the distributive and terminal values observations are established.     

Sufficient Optimality Conditions for Optimal Control Problems with State Constraints

It is well-known in optimal control theory that the maximum principle, in general, furnishes only necessary optimality conditions for an admissible process to be an optimal one. It is also well-known that if a process satisfies the maximum principle in a problem with convex data, the maximum principle turns to be likewise a sufficient condition. Here an invexity type condition for state constrained optimal control problems is defined and shown to be a sufficient optimality condition. Further, it is demonstrated that all optimal control problems where all extremal processes are optimal necessarily obey this invexity condition. Thus optimal control problems which satisfy such a condition constitute the most general class of problems where the maximum principle becomes automatically a set of sufficient optimality conditions.     

Necessary second-order conditions for a weak local minimum in a problem with endpoint and control constraints

One of the first steps towards necessary second-order optimality conditions in problems with constraints was taken by Dubovitskii and Milyutin in 1965. They offered a scheme that was very effective in smooth optimization problems, but seemed to be not suitable for applications in problems with pointwise control constraints. In this article we consider a modification of the Dubovitskii–Milyutin scheme, which allows to derive necessary second-order conditions for a weak local minimum in optimal control problems with a finite number of endpoint constraints of equality and inequality type and with pointwise control constraints of inequality type given by smooth functions. Assuming that the gradients of active control constraints are linearly independent, we provide rather straightforward proof of these conditions for a measurable and essentially bounded optimal control.     

Note on local quadratic growth estimates in bang–bang optimal control problems

Abstract

Strong second-order conditions in mathematical programming play an important role not only as optimality tests but also as an intrinsic feature in stability and convergence theory of related numerical methods. Besides of appropriate firstorder regularity conditions, the crucial point consists in local growth estimation for the objective which yields inverse stability information on the solution. In optimal control, similar results are known in case of continuous control functions, and for bang–bang optimal controls when the state system is linear. The paper provides a generalization of the latter result to bang–bang optimal control problems for systems which are affine-linear w.r.t. the control but depend nonlinearly on the state. Local quadratic growth in terms of L₁ norms of the control variation are obtained under appropriate structural and second-order sufficient optimality conditions.     

Second order optimality conditions for a class of control problems governed by non-linear integral equations with application to parabolic boundary control

In the paper necessary and sufficient second order optimality conditions for optimal control problems governed by weakly singular non linear Hammerstein integral equations are derived. They are applied to a semilinear parabolic boundary control problem for the one dimensional heat equation.     

Sufficient second-order optimality conditions for convex control constraints

In this article sufficient optimality conditions are established for optimal control problems with pointwise convex control constraints. Here, the control is a function with values in Rn. The constraint is of the form u(x)∈U(x), where U is a set-valued mapping that is assumed to be measurable with convex and closed images. The second-order condition requires coercivity of the Lagrange function on a suitable subspace, which excludes strongly active constraints, together with first-order necessary conditions. It ensures local optimality of a reference function in an L^∞-neighborhood. The analysis is done for a model problem namely the optimal distributed control of the instationary Navier-Stokes equations.