Browsing by Author "Yavin, Prof"

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    A variational approach to local optimality in control theory
    (2001) Brown, Bruce J L; Reddy, Daya; Yavin, Prof
    A new approach to control theory is investigated in this thesis. The approach is based on a locally specified state space model of the control dynamics; together with a goal function, which defines a generalized distance from each state position to the desired equilibrium point or trajectory. A feedback control function is sought, which will result in a system response which approximates the gradient descent trajectories of the specified goal function. The approximation is chosen so that the resulting trajectories satisfy a certain local optimality criterion, involving the averaged second derivative of the goal function along the trajectories.