Optimal bilinear control problem related to a chemo-repulsion system in 2D domains

An optimal control problem for the stationary Navier–Stokes equations with variable density is studied. A bilinear control is applied on the flow domain, while Dirichlet and Navier boundary conditions for the velocity are assumed on the boundary. As a first step, we enunciate a result on the existence of weak solutions of the dynamical equation; this is done by firstly expressing the fluid density in terms of the stream-function. Then, the bilinear optimal control problem is analyzed, and the existence of optimal solutions are proved; their corresponding characterization regarding the first-order optimality conditions are obtained. Such optimality conditions are rigorously derived by using a penalty argument since the weak solutions are not necessarily unique neither isolated, and so standard methods cannot be applied.

In this work, a new method for solving an optimal semi-active control problem is formulated. It extends previously published results by addressing a continuous-time bilinear quadratic regulator control problem, defined for a structure that is controlled by multiple controlled hydraulic dampers and subjected to external, a priori known deterministic excitation input. The dynamic system is modeled by a linear state-space model, accompanied by constraints on the control forces that reflect the semi-active nature of the prescribed dampers. Next, the control force is written in an equivalent bilinear form, thereby leading to a bilinear state-space model. The optimal control problem is defined by this dynamic bilinear representation, control force constraints, and a performance index that is quadratic in the states and the equivalent damping gains. Namely, as each device has only two allowable operation modes, its control signal’s range is a two-object set. Krotov’s method is used for solving this problem. This method requires to formulate a function’s sequence with special properties and a suitable minimizing feedback. By doing so, a process improvement becomes possible and an improving sequence can be formulated. This sequence of improving functions and the suitable minimizing feedback, which enable the use of Krotov’s method in this case, are formulated in the context of the addressed problem. The results are encapsulated in a convergent algorithm whose outcome is an approximation of a candidate optimal feedback. Numerical example is given to demonstrate the use of the suggested results for a CBQR control design of a structure, subjected to seismic input.

An infinite-dimensional bilinear optimal control problem with infinite-time horizon is considered. The associated value function can be expanded in a Taylor series around the equilibrium, the Taylor series involving multilinear forms which are uniquely characterized by generalized Lyapunov equations. A numerical method for solving these equations is proposed. It is based on a generalization of the balanced truncation model reduction method and some techniques of tensor calculus, in order to attenuate the curse of dimensionality. Polynomial feedback laws are derived from the Taylor expansion and are numerically investigated for a control problem of the Fokker-Planck equation. Their efficiency is demonstrated for initial values which are sufficiently close to the equilibrium.

This article addresses the optimal tracking control problem with prescribed performance for uncertain nonlinear systems subject to input constraint and unknown disturbances. First, a fixed‐time monotonic convergence function is introduced to restrain tracking error, and a nonlinear mapping technique is employed to transform the constrained error into an unconstrained variable, then the fixed‐time output tracking issue is boiled down to the boundedness problem of the transformed variable. With the aid of a nonquadratic cost function, the input constraint is encoded into the optimization problem. To solve the unknown disturbances, an auxiliary system and an auxiliary disturbance policy are constructed, and the optimal control problem is formulated as a two‐player zero‐sum game. Moreover, a Hamilton–Jacobi–Isaacs (HJI) equation associated with this nonquadratic zero‐sum game is established to give the optimal control and the worst‐case disturbance policy solution. Subsequently, to avoid using knowledge of the system dynamics, three neural network approximators, namely, actor, critic, and disturbance, which are tuned online and simultaneously for approximating the solution of HJI, are constructed based on the integral reinforcement learning algorithm. Theoretical analysis shows that the reconstructed error system states and the weight estimation errors are semi‐globally uniformly ultimately bounded. Finally, the simulation study further tests the availability of the proposed control strategy.

1 A Survey on Computational Optimal Control.- Issues in the Direct Transcription of Optimal Control Problems to Sparse Nonlinear Programs.- Optimization in Control of Robots.- Large-scale SQP Methods and their Application in Trajectory Optimization.- Solving Optimal Control and Pursuit-Evasion Game Problems of High Complexity.- 2 Theoretical Aspects of Optimal Control and Nonlinear Programming.- Continuation Methods In Boundary Value Problems.- Second Order Optimality Conditions for Singular Extremals.- Synthesis of Adaptive Optimal Controls for Linear Dynamic Systems.- Control Applications of Reduced SQP Methods.- Time Optimal Control of Mechanical Systems.- 3 Algorithms for Optimal Control Calculations.- Second Order Algorithm for Time Optimal Control of a Linear System.- An SQP-type Solution Method for Constrained Discrete-Time Optimal Control Problems.- Numerical Methods for Solving Differential Games, Prospective Applications to Technical Problems.- Construction of the Optimal Feedback Controller for Constrained Optimal Control Problems with Unknown Disturbances.- Repetitive Optimization for Predictive Control of Dynamic Systems under Uncertainty.- Optimal Control of Multistage Systems Described by High-Index Differential-Algebraic Equations.- A New Class of a High Order Interior Point Method for the Solution of Convex Semiinfinite Optimization Problems.- A Structured Interior Point SQP Method for Nonlinear Optimal Control Problems.- 4 Software for Optimal Control Calculations.- Automated Approach for Optimizing Dynamic Systems.- ANDECS: A Computation Environment for Control Applications of Optimization.- Application of Automatic Differentiation to Optimal Control Problems.- OCCAL: A mixed symbolic-numeric Optimal Control CALculator.- 5 Applications of Optimal Control.- A Robotic Satellite with Simplified Design.- Nonlinear Control under Constraints of a Biological System.- An Object-Oriented Approach to Optimally Describe and Specify a SCADA System Applied to a Power Network.- Near-Optimal Flight Trajectories Generated by Neural Networks.- Performance of a Feedback Method with Respect to Changes in the Air-Density during the Ascent of a Two-Stage-To-Orbit Vehicle.- Linear Optimal Control for Reentry Flight.- Steady-State Modelling of Turbine Engine with Controllers.- Shortest Paths for Satellite Mounted Robot Manipulators.- Optimal Control of the Industrial Robot Manutec r3.

In general, optimal control problems rely on numerically rather than analytically solving methods, due to their nonlinearities. The direct method, one of the numerically solving methods, is mainly to transform the optimal control problem into a nonlinear optimization problem with finite dimensions, via discretizing the objective functional and the forced dynamical equations directly. However, in the procedure of the direct method, the classical discretizations of the forced equations will reduce or affect the accuracy of the resulting optimization problem as well as the discrete optimal control. In view of this fact, more accurate and efficient numerical algorithms should be employed to approximate the forced dynamical equations. As verified, the discrete variational difference schemes for forced Birkhoffian systems exhibit excellent numerical behaviors in terms of high accuracy, long-time stability and precise energy prediction. Thus, the forced dynamical equations in optimal control problems, after being represented as forced Birkhoffian equations, can be discretized according to the discrete variational difference schemes for forced Birkhoffian systems. Compared with the method of employing traditional difference schemes to discretize the forced dynamical equations, this way yields faithful nonlinear optimization problems and consequently gives accurate and efficient discrete optimal control. Subsequently, in the paper we are to apply the proposed method of numerically solving optimal control problems to the rendezvous and docking problem of spacecrafts. First, we make a reasonable simplification, i.e., the rendezvous and docking process of two spacecrafts is reduced to the problem of optimally transferring the chaser spacecraft with a continuously acting force from one circular orbit around the Earth to another one. During this transfer, the goal is to minimize the control effort. Second, the dynamical equations of the chaser spacecraft are represented as the form of the forced Birkhoffian equation. Then in this case, the discrete variational difference scheme for forced Birkhoffian system can be employed to discretize the chaser spacecraft's equations of motion. With further discretizing the control effort and the boundary conditions, the resulting nonlinear optimization problem is obtained. Finally, the optimization problem is solved directly by the nonlinear programming method and then the discrete optimal control is achieved. The obtained optimal control is efficient enough to realize the rendezvous and docking process, even though it is only an approximation of the continuous one. Simulation results fully verify the efficiency of the proposed method for numerically solving optimal control problems, if the fact that the time step is chosen to be very large to limit the dimension of the optimization problem is noted.

In this paper, an iterative adaptive dynamic programming (ADP) algorithm is developed to solve the optimal cooperative control problems for residential multi-battery systems. To avoid solving high-dimensional optimal control problems, we first constrain all the batteries at their worst performance, which transforms the multi-input optimal control problem into a single-input one. Based on the worst-performance optimal control law, the optimal cooperative control law for the residential multi-battery systems is obtained, where in each iteration, only a single-input optimization problem is implemented. Finally, numerical results are given to illustrate the performance of the developed algorithm.

This article presents a unified approach to simultaneous solution of optimization and optimal control problems in batch distillation, operating under different modes of operation: variable, constant, or optimal reflux. The simplified, computationally efficient short‐cut method and a novel algorithm to solve the optimal control problems in batch distillation is the basis of this unified approach. The short‐cut method identifies the feasible region of operation essential for optimization and optimal control problems, and provides analytical partial derivatives of the model parameters crucial to the solution.The new algorithm for the solution of optimal combination of the maximum principle and NLP optimization techniques. It circumvents the problems associated with the maximum principle approach (iterative solution of a two‐point boundary value problem, undounded control variables, and inability to handle the simultaneous optimization and optimal control problem), and the coupled ODE discretization‐NLP optimization scheme for nonlinear models (higher system nonlinearities, multiplicity of solutions, sensitivity of convergence to initial guesses). This algorithm reduces the dimensionality of the problem, and the nature of the algorithm allows a common platform to optimal solutions of different operating conditions. This article also shows that different categories of the optimal control problems in batch distillation essentially involve the solution of the maximum distillate problem.

In this paper we investigate the use of optimal control techniques to improve Functional Electrical Stimulation (FES) for drop foot correction on hemiplegic patients. A model of the foot and the tibialis anterior muscle, the contraction of which is controlled by electrical stimulation has been established and is used in the optimal control problem. The novelty in this work is the use of the ankle accelerations and shank orientations (so-called external states) in the model, which have been measured on hemiplegic patients in a previous experiment using Inertial Measurement Units (IMUs). The optimal control problem minimizes the square of muscle excitations which serves the overall goal of reducing energy consumption in the muscle. In a first step, an offline optimal control problem is solved for test purposes and shows the efficiency of the FES optimal control for drop foot correction. In a second step, a Nonlinear Model Predictive Control (NMPC) problem - or online optimal control problem, is solved in a simulated environment. While the ulitmate goal is to use NMPC on the real system, i.e. directly on the patient, this test in simulation was meant to show the feasibility of NMPC for online drop foot correction. In the optimization problem, a set of fixed constraints of foot orientation was applied. Then, an original adaptive constraint taking into account the current ankle height, was introduced and tested. Comparisons between results under fixed and adaptive constraints highlight the advantage of the adaptive constraints in terms of energy consumption, where its quadratic sum of controls, obtained by NMPC, was three times lower than with the fixed constraint. This feasibility study was a first step in application of NMPC on real hemiplegic patients for online FES-based drop foot correction. The adaptive constraints method presents a new and efficient approach in terms of muscular energy consumption minimization.

This thesis aims at developing efficient mathematical methods for solving hierarchical dynamic optimization problems. The main motivation is to model processes in nature, for which there is evidence to assume that they run optimally. We describe models of such processes by optimal control problems (called optimal control models (OCMs)). However, an OCM typically includes unknown parameters that cannot be derived entirely on a theoretical basis, which is in particular the case for the cost function. Therefore, we develop parameter estimation techniques to estimate the unknowns in an OCM from observation data of the process. Mathematically, this leads to a hierarchical dynamic optimization problem with a parameter estimation problem on the upper level and an optimal control problem on the lower level. We focus on multi-stage equality and inequality constrained optimal control problems based on nonlinear ordinary differential equations. The main goal of this thesis is to derive numerically efficient mathematical methods for solving hierarchical dynamic optimization problems, and to use these methods to estimate parameters in high-dimensional OCMs from real-world measurement data. We develop parameter-dependent OCMs for the gait of cerebral palsy patients and able-bodied subjects. The unknown parameters in the OCMs are then estimated from real-world motion capture data provided by the Heidelberg MotionLab of the Orthopedic University Clinic Heidelberg by using the mathematical methods developed within this work. The main novelties and contributions of this thesis to the field of hierarchical dynamic optimization are summarized herein. - We establish a novel mathematical method, a so-called direct all-at-once approach, for solving hierarchical dynamic optimization problems based on the direct multiple shooting method and first-order optimality conditions. - Furthermore, we propose an efficient numerical algorithm for large-scale hierarchical dynamic optimization problems, which fully exploits the structures inherited from both the hierarchical setting and the discretization. - Pontryagin's maximum principle is used to analyze solution properties of hierarchical dynamic optimization problems like second-order optimality conditions of the lower-level problem. - In addition, we propose and discuss alternative methods for hierarchical dynamic optimization that are based on derivative-free optimization and a bundle approach. These methods keep the hierarchical problem setting and do not reformulate the lower-level problem using first-order optimality conditions. - We establish a novel lifting method for regularizing mathematical programs with complementarity constraints, which is discussed and numerically investigated by means of a well-known collection of benchmark problems. - Proofs of regularity and convergence results for sequential quadratic programming methods applied to lifted mathematical programs with complementarity constraints are provided. - Efficient state-of-the-art implementations of all mathematical methods derived in this thesis, as well as a benchmark collection of hierarchical dynamic optimization problems are presented. - High-dimensional optimal control gait models for cerebral palsy patients and able-bodied subjects are developed. The mathematical methods derived in this thesis are used to estimate the unknown model parameters from real-world motion capture data provided by the Heidelberg MotionLab of the Orthopedic University Clinic Heidelberg. The theoretical and practical results presented in this thesis can be considered an initial motivating step towards answering open questions in current medical research in fields like treatment planning, classification of gaits, or the evaluation of surgeries by means of hierarchical dynamic optimization.

This paper builds up two equivalence theorems for different kinds of optimal control problems of internally controlled Schrodinger equations. The first one is an equivalence of the minimal norm and the minimal time control problems where the target sets are the origin of the state space. (The minimal time control problems are also called the first type of optimal time control problems.) The second one is an equivalence of three optimal control problems: optimal target control problems, optimal norm control problems, and the second type of optimal time control problems.

In this work, we study an optimal boundary control problem for a Cahn-Hilliard-Navier-Stokes (CHNS) system in a two-dimensional bounded domain. The CHNS system consists of a Navier–Stokes equation governing the fluid velocity field coupled with a convective Cahn–Hilliard equation for the relative concentration of the fluid. An optimal control problem is formulated as the minimization of a cost functional subject to the controlled CHNS system where the control acts on the boundary of the Navier–Stokes equations. We first prove that there exists an optimal boundary control. Then, we establish that the control-to-state operator is Fréchet differentiable and derive first-order necessary optimality conditions in terms of a variational inequality involving the adjoint system.

Previous article Next article The Reduction of Certain Control Problems to an “Ordinary Differential” TypeJ. WargaJ. Wargahttps://doi.org/10.1137/1010036PDFBibTexSections ToolsAdd to favoritesExport CitationTrack CitationsEmail SectionsAbout Previous article Next article FiguresRelatedReferencesCited byDetails Stationarity conditions in optimal control problems class related to dynamical objects group control Cross Ref On the First- and Second-Order Conditions in Optimal Control Problems Related to Autonomous Objects Group lifecycle Cross Ref Optimal Control Problems with Time Delays: Constancy of the HamiltonianRichard B. Vinter25 July 2019 | SIAM Journal on Control and Optimization, Vol. 57, No. 4AbstractPDF (525 KB)On obtaining the stationarity conditions in an optimal control problem for a trajectory with a smooth contact with the phase boundary Cross Ref On one Method to Obtain Stationarity Conditions for an Optimal Control Problem Trajectory With a Smooth Boundary ContactIFAC-PapersOnLine, Vol. 51, No. 32 Cross Ref The Maximum Principle for Optimal Control Problems with Time DelaysA. Boccia and R. B. Vinter19 September 2017 | SIAM Journal on Control and Optimization, Vol. 55, No. 5AbstractPDF (407 KB)Problems with relaxed shifted controls and the pointwise maximum principleNonlinear Analysis: Theory, Methods & Applications, Vol. 75, No. 3 Cross Ref The Instability of Optimal Control Problems to Time DelayAlexey S. Matveev26 July 2006 | SIAM Journal on Control and Optimization, Vol. 43, No. 5AbstractPDF (340 KB)On the Characterization of Properly Relaxed Delayed ControlsJournal of Mathematical Analysis and Applications, Vol. 209, No. 1 Cross Ref Approximation of strongly relaxed minimizers with ordinary delayed controlsApplied Mathematics & Optimization, Vol. 32, No. 1 Cross Ref Jack Warga: In Appreciation14 July 2006 | SIAM Journal on Control and Optimization, Vol. 33, No. 2AbstractPDF (809 KB)Minimizing approximate original solutions for commensurate delayed controlsApplied Mathematics Letters, Vol. 7, No. 5 Cross Ref How to Properly Relax Delayed Controls Cross Ref A proper relaxation of shifted and delayed controlsJournal of Mathematical Analysis and Applications, Vol. 169, No. 2 Cross Ref Optimal controls and their discontinuities in quadratic problems of delay systemsIEEE Transactions on Automatic Control, Vol. 30, No. 7 Cross Ref Optimal Controls with PseudodelaysJ. Warga18 July 2006 | SIAM Journal on Control, Vol. 12, No. 2AbstractPDF (1227 KB)A conservative bound on the estimation error covariance matrix in the presence of correlated driving noise and correlated discrete measurement noiseJournal of Mathematical Analysis and Applications, Vol. 43, No. 2 Cross Ref References Cross Ref Volume 10, Issue 2| 1968SIAM Review History Submitted:18 October 1967Published online:18 July 2006 InformationCopyright © 1968 Society for Industrial and Applied MathematicsPDF Download Article & Publication DataArticle DOI:10.1137/1010036Article page range:pp. 219-222ISSN (print):0036-1445ISSN (online):1095-7200Publisher:Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics

In this paper, we consider a class of optimal switching control problems with multiple time-delays and a cost on changing control and subject to terminal state constraints. A computational method involving three stages is developed to solve this class of optimal control problems. First, by parameterizing the control function with piecewise-constant functions, the optimal switching control problem is approximated by a sequence of finite-dimensional optimization problems, where the original switching times, the control heights and the control switching times are decision variables. Second, by introducing new variables, the total variation of the control variables is transformed into an equivalently smooth function. Third, we convert the constrained optimization problem into one only with box constraints by an exact penalty function method. The gradients of the cost functional are then derived, which can be combined with any gradient-based optimization method to determine the optimal solution. Finally, a numerical example is given to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.

<abstract> This paper discusses some a priori error estimates of bilinear elliptic optimal control problems based on the finite volume element approximation. A case-based numerical example serves to discuss with optimal $ L^2 $-norm error estimates and $ L^{\infty} $-norm error estimates, and supports two key insights. First, the approximate orders for the state, costate and control variables are $ O(h^2) $ in the sense of $ L^{2} $-norm. Second, the approximate orders for the state, costate and control variables are $ O(h^2\sqrt{|lnh|}) $ in the sense of $ L^{\infty} $-norm. </abstract>