Numerical approaches for solving dynamic system design problems: An application to flight level control problem

Abstract

The optimal control theory can be applied to solve the optimization problems of dynamic system. Two major approaches which are used commonly to solve optimal control problems (OCP) are discussed in this paper. A numerical method based on discretization and nonlinear programming techniques is proposed and implemented an OCP solver. In addition, a systematic procedure for solving optimal control problems by using the OCP solver is suggested. Two various types of OCP, A flight level tracking problem and minimum time problem, are modeled according the proposed NLP formulation and solved by applying the OCP solver. The results reveal that the proposed method constitutes a viable method for solving optimal control problems.