A Review of Pseudospectral Optimal Control: From Theory to Flight
It addresses control problems in aerospace and autonomous systems, but is a review paper, so it is incremental in summarizing existing work.
The paper reviews pseudospectral optimal control theory, combining pseudospectral and optimal control methods, and discusses its implementation in NASA flight demonstrations, highlighting its impact on aerospace and autonomous systems since 2011.
The home space for optimal control is a Sobolev space. The home space for pseudospectral theory is also a Sobolev space. It thus seems natural to combine pseudospectral theory with optimal control theory and construct ``pseudospectral optimal control theory,'' a term coined by Ross. In this paper, we review key theoretical results in pseudospectral optimal control that have proven to be critical for a successful flight. Implementation details of flight demonstrations onboard NASA spacecraft are discussed along with emerging trends and techniques in both theory and practice. The 2011 launch of pseudospectral optimal control in embedded platforms is changing the way in which we see solutions to challenging control problems in aerospace and autonomous systems.