This textbook offers a concise yet rigorous introduction to calculus of variations and optimal control theory, and is a self-contained resource for graduate stu
The calculus of variations is used to find functions that optimize quantities expressed in terms of integrals. Optimal control theory seeks to find functions th
When the Tyrian princess Dido landed on the North African shore of the Mediterranean sea she was welcomed by a local chieftain. He offered her all the land that
This is an intuitively motivated presentation of many topics in classical mechanics and related areas of control theory and calculus of variations. All topics t
Functional analysis owes much of its early impetus to problems that arise in the calculus of variations. In turn, the methods developed there have been applied