An Algebraic Method for Optimizing the State, Control, and Terminal State Weight Matrices for Optimal Feedback Control

Abstract

The necessary conditions for formulating optimal feedback control algorithms have been known for many years. Free parameters exist in the performance index in the form of state and control penalty and terminal state penalty matrices for tuning the performance of the optimally controlled system. The selection process is typically experimental and iterative. To generate the weight matrices for optimal feedback control algorithms, an optimization process is proposed. Typically, the optimization process for the weight matrices requires several numerical integration processes that are computationally expensive; this work overcomes the classical high computational cost by exploiting closed-form solutions for the time-varying Riccati matrix, state trajectories, state transition matrix, and the optimal performance index. Closed-form algebraic equations are used to generate all partial derivative calculations, and no numerical integration is required. The closed-form partial derivatives are used to generate analytic gradients for the optimization steps. The optimization strategy seeks to minimize the terminal state values for the feedback control problem. A numerical example is presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed optimization algorithm. The resulting computational procedures are expected to be broadly useful for control theory applications in science and engineering.

11 pages, 6 figures, 2021 AAS/AIAA Astrodynamics Specialist Conference