Heuristically enhanced feedback control of constrained systems: the minimum time case

Abstract Recent advances in computer technology have spurred new interest in the use of feedback controllers based upon the use of on-line optimization. Still, the use of computers in the feedback loop has been hampered by the limited amount of time available for computations. In this paper we propose a feedback controller based upon the use of on-line contrained optimization in the feedback loop. The optimization problem is simplified by making use of the special structure of time-optimal systems, resulting in a substantial dimensionality reduction. These results are used to show that the proposed controller yields asymptotically stable systems, provided that enough computation power is available to solve on-line a constrainted optimization problem considerably simpler than the original.