Optimal Control of Nonlinear Systems Using the Homotopy Perturbation Method

This paper presents a new method for solving a class of nonlinear optimal control problems with a quadratic performance index. In this method, first the original optimal control problem is transformed into a nonlinear two-point boundary value problem (TPBVP) via the Pontryagins maximum principle. Then, using the Homotopy Perturbation Method (HPM) and introducing a convex homotopy in topologic space, the nonlinear TPBVP is transformed into a sequence of linear time-invariant TPBVPs. By solving the presented linear TPBVP sequence in a recursive manner, the optimal control law and the optimal trajectory are determined in the form of infinite series. Finally, in order to obtain an accurate enough sub-optimal control law, an iterative algorithm with low computational complexity is introduced. An illustrative example demonstrates the simplicity and efficiency of proposed method.