1. Introduction
Studying impulsive systems holds significant theoretical and practical significance. In more formal terms, impulsive systems belong to a category of dynamic systems, where state evolution follows continuous time dynamics, except for a number of instances where the state undergoes instantaneous changes. Numerous examples of such systems exist as referenced in [
1,
2,
3]. These systems serve as valuable models for diverse real-world applications across engineering [
4,
5,
6], environmental science [
7], and mathematical finance [
8]. For the latest insights into the subject matter, readers can consult the review article [
9].
LQ control theory and its utilization of Riccati equations has grown substantially. This initial expansion includes investigations into both deterministic systems [
10,
11] and stochastic systems [
12,
13], marking it as a significant area within control theory. In 2000, Rami, Zhou, and Moore [
14] examined the attainability of the LQ problem; specifically, the existence of an optimal control is established using the generalized algebraic Riccati equation. Numerous developments have been made in this area, and we will highlight only a few that are particularly relevant: in [
15], the examination revolves around studying LQ optimal control problems in an infinite horizon characterized by stochastic coefficients. In [
16], the investigation centers on exploring optimal quadratic control for an affine equation in the infinite horizon driven by Levy processes. In [
17], the authors examine an LQ optimal control problem in the infinite horizon case pertaining to mean-field stochastic differential equations. Also worth considering are references [
18,
19,
20,
21].
In [
22,
23], several criteria for exponential stability in the mean square and mean square stabilizability of linear stochastic systems controlled by impulses are provided.
In the present work, we consider a linear quadratic (LQ) optimal control problem for a dynamical system described by the Ito differential equation controlled by impulses. Often, such an optimal control problem by impulses is obtained as an equivalent version of an optimal control problem requiring the minimization of a quadratic criterion along the trajectories of a stochastic dynamical system controlled by piece-wise constant controls; see [
24]. No constraint regarding the sign of the quadratic functional is applied. That is why our first concern is to find conditions which guarantee that the considered optimal control problem is well posed. Then, when the optimal control problem is well posed, it is natural to look for conditions which guarantee the attainability of the optimal control problem that is being evaluated. The main tool involved in the solution of the problems stated before is a backward jump matrix linear differential equation (BJMLDE) with a Riccati-type jumping operator. This is formulated using the matrix coefficients of the controlled system and the weight matrices of the performance criterion.
It is worth mentioning that in the case of an LQ control problem for a stochastic system controlled by impulses, the BJMLDE with a Riccati-type jumping operator plays the role which the Riccati differential equation or the Riccati algebraic equation, respectively, has in the case of an LQ control problem, where the control laws do not act by impulses. That is why it is natural to introduce the concepts of maximal solution and stabilizing solution of a BJMLDE with a Riccati-type jumping operator.
The principal contributions of the present paper encompass the following:
We introduce the concepts of maximal solution and stabilizing solution of the BJMLDE with a Riccati-type jumping operator and provide necessary and sufficient conditions which guarantee the existence of these solutions.
We show that the existence of the maximal solution of the BJMLDE with a Riccati-type jumping operator satisfying a suitable sign condition guarantees the well posedness of the optimal control problem under consideration. We introduce the value function associated to the optimal control problem and compute its value for all initial pairs .
Under the assumption that the corresponding BJMLDE with a Riccati-type jumping operator has a maximal solution which satisfies a suitable sign condition, the optimal control problem under consideration is attainable if and only if it admits a unique optimal control which is in a state feedback form, or equivalently, if and only if the maximal solution of the BJMLDE with a Riccati-type jumping operator is a stabilizing solution too.
The derivations use the equivalence of the exponential stability in the mean square of a continuous time jump linear stochastic system with the exponential stability of the companion discrete-type linear equation. That is why we do not need to refer to the criteria for the exponential stability in the mean square or to the criteria for stabilizability in the mean square of the linear stochastic systems controlled by impulses existing in the literature, such as those from [
22,
23].
The rest of the paper is structured as follows: In
Section 2, we introduce the problem and provide necessary preliminary concepts. In
Section 3, we introduce the backward jump matrix linear differential equation (BJMLDE) with a Riccati-type jumping operator and provide a necessary and sufficient condition for the existence of the maximal and bounded solution for this (see Theorems 1 and 2).
Section 4 is centered on the the well posedness (see Theorem 3) and attainability (see Theorem 4) of the optimal control problem. Finally,
Section 5 offers the concluding remarks for the paper.
2. The Problem
Consider the impulsive controlled linear stochastic system (ICLSS) described by
where we denote by
the state vector of the system and by
the control parameters. In (
1a),
is a one-dimensional standard Wiener process (or process of the Brownian motion). This is defined on a given probability space
, and in (1b),
is a sequence of independent random variables with zero mean and variance one. For further information on the definition and characteristics of the Wiener process, we can refer to [
25,
26].
Throughout the work, we assume that and are independent stochastic processes. For each , represents the algebra generated by the random variables , , and , augmented with all subsets with
In (1) the controls act at impulsive time instances , That is why this kind of system is called impulsive controlled systems.
Based on Theorem 5.2.1 from [
27] used on each interval
, we can demonstrate the following.
Proposition 1. For each initial pair and for any random vectors which are measurable withthe ICLSS (1) has a unique solution , with the following properties: - (a)
is continuous (with probability 1) in any , left continuous in for
- (b)
for all
- (c)
and , where is provided by (1b).
We recall that
and
is used for the mathematical expectation. If
is an interval, then
denotes the Hilbert space of the stochastic processes
, which are non-anticipative with respect to the filtration
and satisfies
For each initial pair , we denote the set of controls satisfying the following properties:
- (a)
are
measurable and
- (b)
Here and in the sequel,
is the integer with the property that
In (2), , is the trajectory of ICLSS (1) starting from at the initial time , and it is determined by the input
It is worth noticing that if the ICLSS (1) is mean square stabilizable by the linear state feedback in the sense of Definition 2 from [
28], then the sets
are not empty for any initial pair
In the sequel,
will be called the set of
admissible controls associated to the initial pair
To the pair formed by the ICLSS (1) and the admissible controls
we associate the following quadratic functional:
where
Regarding the matrix coefficients of (1) and the weight matrices from (
4), we assume that
,
,
,
,
,
,
are known matrices. Here and in the sequel,
represents the linear space of real symmetric matrices of size
The optimal control problem we aim to solve in this work involves finding conditions that ensure the existence of an admissible control
which is satisfying the optimality condition
for any
Since we do not impose any condition regarding the sign of the considered weighting matrices from (
4), it is necessary to find first conditions which guarantee that the functional (
4) is bounded below across the set of the admissible controls
To this end, we introduce the so-called value function
associated to the optimal control problem under consideration. We set
Definition 1. We say that the optimal control problem described by the performance criterion (4), the controlled system (1), and the set of the admissible controls is as follows: - (a)
Well posed iffor any initial pair - (b)
Attainable, if for each , there exists the control with
In
Section 3, we examine the issue of whether a maximal solution and a stabilizing solution exist for this type of backward jump matrix linear differential equation.
In
Section 4, we shall develop conditions which guarantee that the optimal control problem under consideration is well posed and attainable. The primary instrument is a BJMLDE with a Riccati-type jumping operator.
3. BJMLDE with Riccati-Type Jumping Operators
Based on the matrix coefficients of the ICLSS (1) and the weighting matrices provided by the performance criterion (
4), we introduce the following BJMLDE with a Riccati-type jumping operator:
is the set of all bounded functions
satisfying the following:
- (a)
is a differentiable function on each interval right continuous in ,
- (b)
verify the following jump matrix linear differential inequalities:
for all
,
Remark 1. Employing the Schur complement technique (Theorem 1 from [29]), one may show that the set contains all the bounded solutions of the BJMLDE (8) which are satisfying the sign conditionsfor all A significant role will be performed by the subset
which contains all bounded functions
satisfying the stronger condition:
for all
Definition 2. A globally defined solution of the BJMLDE (8) is named a maximal solution iffor all for any Definition 3. A globally defined solution of the BJMLDE (8) is called the stabilizing solution if the closed-loop jump stochastic linear differential equation, JSLDE, is exponentially stable in mean square (ESMS), where Definition 4. The ICLSS is mean square stabilizable by the linear state feedback if there exists a matrix such that the following closed-loop JSLDE, is ESMS. A set of necessary and sufficient criteria for the mean square stabilizability by the linear state feedback of an ICLSS of type (1) is provided by Theorem 6 in [
28].
In this section, we shall highlight the necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence of the maximal solution and the stabilizing solution of a BJMLDE of type (8). To this end, we will appeal to the properties of the linear and positive operators and of the linear operators which are defining a positive evolution on an ordered Hilbert space.
We recall that
is a finite dimensional real Hilbert space with the inner product:
for all
, here,
stands for the trace operator. Furthermore,
becomes an ordered Hilbert space with the order relation ⪰ provided by the convex cone
Consider
the linear operator defined as
for all
Based on the inner product (
14), we consider the adjoint operator
which is described by
for all
With these notations, the differential Equation (
8a) can be expressed in a compact form as
Let
be a globally defined solution of (8). From (
17), we obtain that
Letting
,
in (
18) and substituting the result in (8b), one obtains that the sequence
solves the next generalized discrete-time Riccati-type equation (GDTRE):
where
Employing Theorem 2.6.1 from [
30], we obtain the following.
Corollary 1. If and are the linear operators, defined by (15) and (16), then both as well as , are positive operators defined on the ordered Hilbert space that isandfor all if Based on (20), we introduce the following linear operator
defined by
for all
From (20) and (
22), one obtains via Corollary 1 that
This allows us to conclude that the GDTRE (
19) is a special case of the relation 5.8 from [
31].
The GDTRE (
19) is determined by the pair
where
is the linear operator defined in (
22), while
with
,
and
being described in (21). To the pair
, we associate the following sets of sequences of symmetric matrices:
where
Lemma 1. - (a)
There exists a one-to-one correspondence between the set of the matrix valued functions which are satisfying the linear matrix differential inequalities with jumps (9) and the set of the sequences of symmetric matrices which are satisfying the linear matrix inequalities (23); - (b)
There exists a one-to-one correspondence between the set of the matrix valued functions which satisfy the linear matrix inequalities (9a) with jumps described by (10) and the set of the matrix valued sequences which satisfy the linear matrix inequalities (24).
Proof. If
is satisfying (
9a), we define
So (
9a) can be expressed as
where
Hence, if
is satisfying (
9a), it also satisfies
Letting
,
in (
26) and substituting the result in (9b) and in (9c), we obtain via (20) and (21) that the sequence
lies in
because
Conversely, if
lies in
, we define
for all
for any
Letting
,
in (
27), we obtain that
Differentiating (
27) with respect to the parameter
t, we obtain
Employing (20), (
23), (
25), and (
27) written for
with (
28) written for
k replaced by
we obtain that
satisfies (9b) and (9c). Hence,
defined in (
27) lies in
Thus, the proof of
is complete.
Part may be proved in a similar manner. □
Particularizing the Definition 4.7 from [
31] for the stabilizability of a sequence of linear operators to the case of the linear operator
defined by (20) and (
22), we obtain the following.
Definition 5. The linear operator is stabilizable if there exists a matrix with the property that the discrete time linear equation on the Hilbert space is exponentially stable. is the adjoint of the linear operator with respect to the inner product (14), where By direct calculation, involving (20), (
22), (
29), and (
30), we obtain the following.
Corollary 2. On the linear operator specified by (20) and (22), we have the following equivalences: - (i)
The operator Π is stabilizable (in the framework of Definition 5);
- (ii)
There exists a matrix with the property that the discrete-time linear equation on the Hilbert space is exponentially stable.
Invoking Proposition 3.1 and Proposition 3.3 from [
28] in the case of the JSLDE (13), we obtain via Corollary 2 Definitions 4 and 5.
Corollary 3. The ICLSS (1) is mean square stabilizable by the linear state feedback if and only if the accompanying linear operator Π associated via (20) and (22) is stabilizable. The following result establishes the conditions that are both necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence of the maximal and bounded solution of the BJMLDE (8).
Theorem 1. If the ICLSS (1) is mean square stabilizable by the linear state feedback, then we have the following equivalences:
- (i)
The set is not empty;
- (ii)
The BJMLDE (8) with a Riccati-type jumping operator has a unique maximal and bounded solution which satisfies the sign conditionfor all Furthermore, is a periodic function of period
Proof. The implication follows immediately because, according to Remark 1, the maximal solution, if any, lies in
In order to prove the implication
let us remark that Lemma 1
together with Corollary 3 guarantees that in the case of GDTRE (
19), the assumptions from Theorem 5.3 in [
31] are fulfilled. Hence, under the considered assumptions, the GDTRE (
19) has a unique maximal solution
which satisfies the following sign condition:
For each
and
, we define
One shows that (
34) defines a periodic function of period
h, and (
33) becomes (
32).
Finally, employing (20), (21), and (
34), one see that
is a solution of the BJMLDE (8). Employing again Lemma 1
, one obtains that
defined in (
34) is just the unique bounded and maximal solution of the BJMLDE (8). Thus, the proof ends. □
Theorem 2. The following are equivalent:
- (i)
The ICLSS (1) is mean square stabilizable by the linear state feedback, and the set is not empty;
- (ii)
The BJMLDE with a Riccati-type jumping operator (8) has a unique bounded and stabilizing solution which satisfies the following sign condition:for all Further, is a periodic function of period h, and it coincides with the maximal bounded solution of (8).
Proof. Invoking Lemma 1
together with Corollary 3, we see that we can apply the implication
of Theorem 5.5 and Theorem 5.6 from [
31] to deduce that the GDTRE (
19) has a stabilizing solution
which satisfies the following sign condition:
We define
for any
and for all
One shows that defined as before is just the stabilizing solution of (8). Thus, the proof of the implication ends.
To prove
, one takes into account that if
is the stabilizing and bounded solution of (8), then the sequence
is the stabilizing solution of the GDTRE (
19). Reasoning from
from Theorem 5.6 of [
31], we obtain that the operator
is stabilizable (in the framework of Definition 5), and the set
is not empty.
Invoking again Lemma 1 together with Corollary 3, we may conclude that the set is not empty, and the ICLSS (1) is mean square stabilizable by the linear state feedback. □
Remark 2. According to the equivalence from Proposition 5.2 from [31] applied in the particular case of the GDTRE (19), if the set is not empty, it necessarily contains constant sequences. That is why in view of Lemma 1 in order to test if the set is not empty, it is sufficient to check if the linear matrix inequality (LMI) (24)–(25) has a solution which is not dependent upon 5. Conclusions
This paper has contributed to the further development of the LQ control problem for stochastic systems controlled by impulses. A sufficient condition for the well posedness of the LQ control problem under consideration is expressed in terms of the existence of a maximal solution satisfying a suitable sign condition of the BJMLDE with a Riccati-type jumping operator constructed based on the matrix coefficients of the controlled system and the weight matrices of the performance criterion. When the condition for the well posedness is fulfilled, the LQ control problem is attainable if and only if the maximal solution of the BJMLDE with a Riccati-type jumping operator is also a stabilizing solution.
According to the terminology introduced in [
32] for the deterministic framework, the problem analyzed in the present work is a generalization to the stochastic case of a fixed-endpoint LQ control problem. A remaining challenge for future research is the analysis of the well-posedness and attainability of a free-endpoint LQ control problem for a stochastic system controlled by impulses.
Another challenge for future research could be the investigation of the well-posedness and attainability of an LQ optimal control problem for a stochastic system controlled by impulses in which the length of the intervals between two impulse instances is not constant, it being time varying or just driven by a stochastic process.
The derivation of some efficient numerical procedures for the computation of the maximal solution and the stabilizing solution (if any) of the BJMLDE with a Riccati-type jumping operator associated to the control problems under consideration is necessary in order to be able to illustrate the applicability of the theoretical developments both in the constant dwell time case as well as in the time-varying dwell time case.