Two defence applications involving discrete valued optimal control

Abstract

We present two examples of optimal discrete valued control problems which arise in defence applications. The first one involves the management of batteries in a submarine. In the second example, one wishes to determine an optimal transit path for a submarine through a field of sonar sensors, subject to a total time constraint. A recently developed numerical solution technique for discrete valued optimal control problems is used to solve both of these problems. We present numerical results for each example.