Optimal control and relaxation for a class of nonlinear distributed parameter systems (Q753128)

This paper studies the optimal control of a class of nonlinear systems governed by a Volterra integrodifferential evolution equation. First we prove the existence of optimal controls under a convexity hypothesis on an appropriate orientor field. Then we drop that convexity hypothesis and we pass to a larger system with convexified dynamics, known as the ``relaxed system''. We show that for this system we can find an optimal control and under reasonable hypotheses on the cost functional, its value equals the value of the original problem. Then we show that the original trajectories are dense for the uniform topology in the relaxed ones and using that we show that the two equivalent forms of the relaxed problem that we introduced are the ``closure'' of the original one. Finally we present in detail two examples of optimal control of distributed parameter systems. One is a hyperbolic system, the other is a parabolic one.