A control space ensuring the strong convergence of continuous approximation for a controlled sweeping process (Q6163861)

Recall that the classic Moreau's sweeping process is modeled by some differential equation that describes the motion of a point under the influence of a moving set. That equation is a non-smooth differential equation with its right-hand side not continuous. To solve the equation is challenging, but it is also a very important in practice. The mentioned equation can be used to model a wide variety of phenomena, including elastoplasticity, crowd motion, and hysteresis. In this paper the following fixed time Mayer-type optimal control problem (P) involving \(W^{1,2}\)-controlled sweeping systems is considered: \[ \begin{aligned} (P) &\quad \text{Minimize} \quad g(x(0), x(1)) \\ &\quad \text{over} \quad (x, u) \in \text{AC}([0, 1]; \mathbb{R}^n) \times \mathcal{W} \end{aligned} \] such that \[ \begin{cases} \quad \dot{x}(t) \in f(x(t), u(t)) - \partial \phi(x(t)), \text{ a.e. } t \in [0, 1], \\ \quad x(0) \in C_0 \subset \text{dom } \phi, \\ \quad x(1) \in C_1. \end{cases} \] where, \( g : \mathbb{R}^n \times \mathbb{R}^n \to \mathbb{R} \cup \{ \infty \}, \) \( f : \mathbb{R}^n \times \mathbb{R}^m \to \mathbb{R}^n, \) \( \phi : \mathbb{R}^n \to \mathbb{R} \cup \{ \infty \}, \) \( \partial \) denotes the Clarke subdifferential, \( C := \text{dom} \;\phi \) is the zero-sublevel set of a function \( \psi : \mathbb{R}^n \to \mathbb{R} \), that is, \( C = \{ x \in \mathbb{R}^n : \psi(x) \le 0 \}, \) \( C_0 \subset C, \) \( C_1 \subset \mathbb{R}^n \) and for a multifunction \( U : [0, 1] \rightrightarrows \mathbb{R}^m \) and \( U := \bigcup_{t \in [0, 1]} U(t) \), the set of control functions \( \mathcal{W}:= W^{1,2}([0, 1];U)\). The authors establish existence of optimal solutions and derive local optimality conditions in the form of a weak-Pontryagin-type maximum principle via strong converging continuous approximations, whose state entirely resides in the interior of the prox-regular set. Subdifferentials smaller than the standard ones are employed in the optimality results. An example of the problem (P) demonstrating the usage the obtained necessary optimality conditions is given. The paper contains on ample references consisting of 40 items.