Brachistochrone with friction (Q357161)

The author proposes a new approach to the brachistochrone problem with dry and viscous friction, linear with respect to velocity, acting on the material point. The problem is formulated in terms of control theory, and as the control, the normal component of the reaction of the support curve is chosen. This leads to necessary optimality conditions from which the equation of brachistochrones in a parametric form is obtained analytically. In order to illustrate the obtained general results, families of optimal trajectories partially covering the domains of possible motion for certain particular values of friction coefficients are presented.