Optimal control with sweeping processes: numerical method (Q2188947)

The present work discusses numerical methods for a certain class of optimal control problems involving sweeping processes. Here, sweeping processes refer to dynamic systems described by differential inclusions with a normal cone to a set. The sweeping set is considered to be constant and coincides with the zero level set of a convex, \(C^2\)-function. The presence of the normal cone produces differential inclusions with unbounded and discontinuous right-hand side. The proposed method is based on a sequence of approximating standard optimal control problems and has been introduced in prior work of the authors [Set-Valued Var. Anal. 27, No. 2, 523--548 (2019; Zbl 1419.49030)]. The paper introduces the problem of interest, provides theoretical results that establish convergence of the proposed sequence of approximating problems to the solution of the original problem, and concludes with an analysis of, and numerical results for, an example problem to illustrate the efficiency of the proposed method.