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Sufficient Conditions For Optimal Control Problems With Terminal Constraints And Free Terminal Times With Applications To Aerospace, Sankalp Kishan Bhan
Sufficient Conditions For Optimal Control Problems With Terminal Constraints And Free Terminal Times With Applications To Aerospace, Sankalp Kishan Bhan
McKelvey School of Engineering Theses & Dissertations
Motivated by the flight control problem of designing control laws for a Ground Collision Avoidance System (GCAS), this thesis formulates sufficient conditions for a strong local minimum for a terminally constrained optimal control problem with a free-terminal time. The conditions develop within the framework of a construction of a field of extremals by means of the method of characteristics, a procedure for the solution of first-order linear partial differential equations, but modified to apply to the Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman equation of optimal control. Additionally, the thesis constructs these sufficient conditions for optimality with a mathematically rigorous development. The proof uses an approach …
Extrinsic And Intrinsic Control Of Integrative Processes In Neural Systems, Anirban Nandi
Extrinsic And Intrinsic Control Of Integrative Processes In Neural Systems, Anirban Nandi
McKelvey School of Engineering Theses & Dissertations
At the simplest dynamical level, neurons can be understood as integrators. That is, neurons accumulate excitation from afferent neurons until, eventually, a threshold is reached and they produce a spike. Here, we consider the control of integrative processes in neural circuits in two contexts. First, we consider the problem of extrinsic neurocontrol, or modulating the spiking activity of neural circuits using stimulation, as is desired in a wide range of neural engineering applications. From a control-theoretic standpoint, such a problem presents several interesting nuances, including discontinuity in the dynamics due to the spiking process, and the technological limitations associated with …