Universale Rettungskurven. I. (Universal rescue curves. I) (Q1085430)

The geometric problem in this paper is to find the curve of minimal length with the following property: It connects each starting point and the shore of any lake with given thickness. The author shows how this problem can be formulated as an optimal control problem with pointwise state and control constraints. The Kuhn-Tucker conditions are used to deduce necessary optimality conditions which give rise to geometric interpretations of the solution of the problem.