Generalized solutions for singular optimal control problems

This text presents a complete theory of existence/uniqueness and the structure of generalized solutions for singular linear-quadratic optimal control problems. Generalized optimal controls are distributions of order r and the corresponding generalized trajectories are distributions of order (r - 1). r is the "order of singularity" of the problem, an integer no greater than the dimension of the state space. Its value is obtained through a certain reduction procedure. In the final section, some perspectives and partial results concerning the extension of these results to nonlinear problems are briefly discussed. © 2009 Springer Science+Business Media, Inc.