Optimal Control Theory for Applications

The published material represents the outgrowth of teaching analytical optimization to aerospace engineering graduate students. To make the material available to the widest audience, the prerequisites are limited to calculus and differential equations. It is also a book about the mathematical aspects of optimal control theory. It was developed in an engineering environment from material learned by the author while applying it to the solution of engineering problems. One goal of the book is to help engineering graduate students learn the fundamentals which are needed to apply the methods to engineering problems. The examples are from geometry and elementary dynamical systems so that they can be understood by all engineering students. Another goal of this text is to unify optimization by using the differential of calculus to create the Taylor series expansions needed to derive the optimality conditions of optimal control theory.

From the reviews:

"It presents a unified approach to the conversion of nonlinear optimal control problems into parameter optimizations for numerical solutions. ... the book is written in a way that is very accessible to the audience. The selection of topics is useful and coherent, and the book is well organized. ... is highly effective in explaining basic ideas of optimal control. ... It can also be a useful reference to engineers and researchers who want to use applied optimal control theories for solving engineering problems ... ." (Yiyuan J. Zhao, International Journal of Robust and Nonlinear Control, Vol. 15 (17), 2005)