Pontryagin's maximum principle

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Pontryagin's maximum principle is used in optimal control theory to find the best possible control for taking a dynamical system from one state to another, especially in the presence of constraints for the state or input controls. It states that it is necessary for any optimal control along with the optimal state trajectory to solve the so-called Hamiltonian system, which is a two-point boundary value problem, plus a maximum condition of the control Hamiltonian. These necessary conditions become sufficient under certain convexity conditions on the objective and constraint functions. The maximum principle was formulated in 1956 by the Russian mathematician Lev Pontryagin and his students, and its initial application was to the maximization of the terminal speed of a rocket. The result was derived using ideas from the classical calculus of variations. After a slight perturbation of the optimal control, one considers the first-order term of a Taylor expansion with respect to the perturbation...

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