A minimal polynomial for finding the switching instants and the support vector of the controllability domain (Q1874842)

The authors investigate the time optimization problem \(\;\dot x_1 = u\), \(| u| \leq 1\), \(\dot x_i=x_{i-1}\), \(i=2,\dots,n\), \(x(0)=x\), \(x(\Theta)=0\), \(\Theta \to \min.\) The problem is equivalent to the power moment problem on the minimal possible interval. This approach enables to obtain an analytic solution including finding the control \(u(t)\), the optimal time \(\Theta\) and the switching instants \(T_1, T_2,\dots, T_{n-1}\). If \(u(t)\) is a time optimal control from \(x\) to \(0\), then it is a piecewise constant function with at most \(n-1\) points of discontinuity and the values \(\pm 1\). The switching instants are the roots of the polynomial of the degree \(n-1\) explicitly constructed. Furthermore, by multiplying the coefficients of the polynomial by some known factors, we can obtain the components of the support vector at the point \(x\) of the domain of controllability in time \(\Theta_0\).