Let $C(t)$, $t\geq0$ be a Lipschitz set-valued map with closed and (mildly non-)convex values and $f(t, x,u)$ be a map, Lipschitz continuous w.r.t. $x$. We consider the problem of reaching a target $S$ within the graph of $C$ subject to the differential inclusion \[ (\star)\qquad \dot{x} \in -N_{C(t)}(x) + G(t,x) \] starting from $x_{0}\in C(t_{0})$ in the minimum time $T(t_{0},x_{0})$. The dynamics $(\star)$ is called a perturbed sweeping (or Moreau) process. We give sufficient conditions for $T$ to be finite and continuous and characterize $T$ through Hamilton-Jacobi inequalities. Crucial tools for our approach are characterizations of weak and strong flow invariance of a set $S$ subject to $(\star)$. Due to the presence of the normal cone $N_{C(t)}(x)$, the right hand side of $(\star)$ contains implicitly the state constraint $x(t)\in C(t)$ and is not Lipschitz continuous with respect to $x$.
In this paper, we introduce and study degenerate state-dependent sweeping processes with nonregular moving sets (subsmooth and positively $α$-far). Based on the Moreau-Yosida regularization, we prove the existence of solutions under the Lipschitzianity of the moving sets with respect to the truncated Hausdorff distance.
In this paper, we study a new variant of Moreau's sweeping process with velocity constraint. Based on an adapted version of Moreau's catching-up algorithm, we show the well-posedness (in the sense existence and uniqueness) of this problem in a general framework. We show the equivalence between this implicit sweeping process and a quasistatic evolution variational inequality. It is well known that the variational formulations of many mechanical problems with unilateral contact and friction lead to an evolution variational inequality. As an application, we reformulate the quasistatic antiplane f…
The paper is mostly devoted to applications of a novel optimal control theory for perturbed sweeping/Moreau processes to two practical dynamical models. The first model addresses mobile robot dynamics with obstacles, and the second one concerns control and optimization of traffic flows. Describing these models as controlled sweeping processes with pointwise/hard control and state constraints and applying new necessary optimality conditions for such systems allow us to develop efficient procedures to solve naturally formulated optimal control problems for the models under consideration and comp…
The paper concerns optimal control of discontinuous differential inclusions of the normal cone type governed by a generalized version of the Moreau sweeping process with control functions acting in both nonconvex moving sets and additive perturbations. This is a new class of optimal control problems in comparison with previously considered counterparts where the controlled sweeping sets are described by convex polyhedra. Besides a theoretical interest, a major motivation for our study of such challenging optimal control problems with intrinsic state constraints comes from the application to th…
This paper deals with optimal control problems described by a controlled version of Moreau's sweeping process governed by convex polyhedra, where measurable control actions enter additive perturbations. This class of problems, which addresses unbounded discontinuous differential inclusions with intrinsic state constraints, is truly challenging and underinvestigated in control theory while being highly important for various applications. To attack such problems with constrained measurable controls, we develop a refined method of discrete approximations with establishing its well-posedness and s…
We consider the free endpoint Mayer problem for a controlled Moreau process, the control acting as a perturbation of the dynamics driven by the normal cone, and derive necessary optimality conditions of Pontryagin's Maximum Principle type. The results are also discussed through an example. We combine techniques from M. Sene, L. Thibault, Journal of Nonlinear and Convex Analysis 15 (2014) and from M. Brokate and P. Krejci, Discrete and continuous dynamical systems series B. Volume 18 (2013), 331-348, which in particular deals with a different but related control problem. Our assumptions include…
The paper addresses a new class of optimal control problems governed by the dissipative and discontinuous differential inclusion of the sweeping/Moreau process while using controls to determine the best shape of moving convex polyhedra in order to optimize the given Bolza-type functional, which depends on control and state variables as well as their velocities. Besides the highly non-Lipschitzian nature of the unbounded differential inclusion of the controlled sweeping process, the optimal control problems under consideration contain intrinsic state constraints of the inequality and equality t…
In this paper, we analyze and discuss the well-posedness of a new variant of the so-called sweeping process, introduced by J.J. Moreau in the early 70's \cite{More71} with motivation in plasticity theory. In this variant, the normal cone to the (mildly non-convex) prox-regular moving set $C(t)$, supposed to have an absolutely continuous variation, is perturbed by a sum of a Carathéodory mapping and an integral forcing term. The integrand of the forcing term depends on two time-variables, that is, we study a general integro-differential sweeping process of Volterra type. By setting up an approp…
This paper is mainly devoted to the study of controlled sweeping processes with polyhedral moving sets in Hilbert spaces. Based on a detailed analysis of truncated Hausdorff distances between moving polyhedra, we derive new existence and uniqueness theorems for sweeping trajectories corresponding to various classes of control functions acting in moving sets. Then we establish quantitative stability results, which provide efficient estimates on the sweeping trajectory dependence on controls and initial values. Our final topic, accomplished in finite-dimensional state spaces, is deriving new nec…
The paper is devoted to a free-time optimal control problem for sweeping processes. We develop a constructive finite-difference approximation procedure that allows us to establish necessary optimality conditions for discrete optimal solutions and then show how these optimality conditions are applied to solving a controlled marine surface vehicle model.
This paper mainly focuses on solving the dynamic optimization of the planar controlled crowd motion models with obstacles which is an application of a class of optimal control problems governed by a general perturbed nonconvex sweeping process. This can be considered as a significant extension of the previous work regarding the controlled crowd motion models, where the obstacles have not been considered. The necessary optimality conditions for the problem under consideration are established and illustrated by a nontrivial example of practical importance.
The paper is devoted to deriving necessary optimality conditions in a general optimal control problem for dynamical systems governed by controlled sweeping processes with hard-constrained control actions entering both polyhedral moving sets and additive perturbations. By using the first-order and mainly second-order tools of variational analysis and generalized differentiation, we develop a well-posed method of discrete approximations, obtain optimality conditions for solutions to discrete-time control systems, and then establish by passing to the limit verifiable necessary optimality conditio…
This paper addresses a new class of optimal control problems for perturbed sweeping processes with measurable controls in additive perturbations of the dynamics and smooth controls in polyhedral moving sets. We develop a constructive discrete approximation procedure that allows us to strongly approximate any feasible trajectory of the controlled sweeping process by feasible discrete trajectories and also establish a $W^{1,2}$-strong convergence of optimal trajectories for discretized control problems to a given local minimizer of the original continuous-time sweeping control problem of the Bol…
This paper concerns optimal control problems for a class of sweeping processes governed by discontinuous unbounded differential inclusions that are described via normal cone mappings to controlled moving sets. Largely motivated by applications to hysteresis, we consider a general setting where moving sets are given as inverse images of closed subsets of finite-dimensional spaces under nonlinear differentiable mappings dependent on both state and control variables. Developing the method of discrete approximations and employing generalized differential tools of first-order and second-order varia…
The paper addresses an optimal control problem for a perturbed sweeping process of the rate-independent hysteresis type described by a controlled "play and stop" operator with separately controlled perturbations. This problem can be reduced to dynamic optimization of a state-constrained unbounded differential inclusion with highly irregular data that cannot be treated by means of known results in optimal control theory for differential inclusions. We develop the method of discrete approximations, which allows us to adequately replace the original optimal control problem by a sequence of well-p…
The paper concerns the study and applications of a new class of optimal control problems governed by a perturbed sweeping process of the hysteresis type with control functions acting in both play-and-stop operator and additive perturbations. Such control problems can be reduced to optimization of discontinuous and unbounded differential inclusions with pointwise state constraints, which are immensely challenging in control theory and prevent employing conventional variation techniques to derive necessary optimality conditions. We develop the method of discrete approximations married with appro…
We use the ideas of Adly-Attoych-Cabot [Adv. Mech. Math., 12, Springer, 2006] on finite-time stabilization of dry friction oscillators to establish a theorem on finite-time stabilization of differential inclusions with a moving polyhedral constraint (known as polyhedral sweeping processes) of the form $C+c(t).$ We then employ the ideas of Moreau [New variational techniques in mathematical physics, CIME, 1973] to apply our theorem to a system of elastoplastic springs with a displacement-controlled loading. We show that verifying the condition of the theorem ultimately leads to the following two…
We consider a controlled evolution problem for a set $Ω(t)\in\mathbb{R}^d$, originally motivated by a model where a dog controls a flock of sheep. Necessary conditions and sufficient conditions are given, in order that the evolution be completely controllable. Similar techniques are then applied to the approximation of a sweeping process. Under suitable assumptions, we prove that there exists a control function such that the corresponding evolution of the set $Ω(t)$ is arbitrarily close to the one determined by the sweeping process.
This article concerns an optimal crowd motion control problem in which the crowd features a structure given by its organization into N groups (participants) each one spatially confined in a set. The overall optimal control problem consists in driving the ensemble of sets as close as possible to a given point (the 'exit') while the population in each set minimizes its control effort subject to its sweeping dynamics with a controlled state dependent velocity drift. In order to capture the conflict between the goal of the overall population and those of the various groups, the problem is cast as …
The paper addresses the study of a class of evolutionary quasi-variational inequalities of the parabolic type arising in the formation and growth models of granular and cohensionless materials. Such models and their mathematical descriptions are highly challenging and require powerful tools of their analysis and implementation. We formulate a space-time continuous optimal control problem for a basic model of this type, develop several regularization and approximation procedures, and establish the existence of optimal solutions for the time-continuous and space-discrete problem. Viewing a versi…
