The existence of an optimal solution for two-dimensional continuous control systems (Q1905697)

For the classical two-dimensional Darboux-Goursat system on \(P^2= [0, 1]\times [0, 1]\) a linear term with control is added and a nonlinear cost functional of Bolza type is considered. The main result of the paper concerns the existence of optimal solutions for such control problems in the class of absolutely continuous trajectories and the controls are supposed to be measurable functions on \(P^2\) with values in a convex and compact subset of \(\mathbb{R}^r\). The proof of the result is based on the theorem stating that for every admissible control there exists the unique absolutely continuous solution of the system with homogeneous boundary conditions and that this solution depends on control in a continuous way. Then the direct method of calculus of variations is applied. The theorem mentioned above is proved by using the Banach fixed point theorem for contractions in \(L^1(P^2, \mathbb{R}^n)\) and owing to some characterizations of absolutely continuous functions of two variables obtained earlier by S. Walczak.