Optimal control of switched systems by a modified pseudo spectral method

In the present paper, we develop a modified pseudospectral scheme for solving an optimal control problem which is governed by a switched dynamical system. Many real-world processes such as chemical processes, automotive systems and manufacturing processes can be modeled as such systems. For this purpose, we replace the problem with an alternative optimal control problem in which the switching times appear as unknown parameters. Using the Legendre-Gauss-Lobatto quadrature and the corresponding differentiation matrix, the alternative problem is discretized to a nonlinear programming problem. At last, we examine three examples in order to illustrate the efficiency of the proposed method.