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This paper proposes a new theoretic approach to a specific interaction of continuous and discrete dynamics in switched control systems known as a Zeno behaviour. We study executions of switched control systems with affine structure that admit infinitely many discrete transitions on a finite time interval. Although the real world processes do not present the corresponding behaviour, mathematical models of many engineering systems may be Zeno due to the used formal abstraction. We propose two useful approximative approaches to the Zeno dynamics, namely, an analytic technique and a variational description of this phenomenon. A generic trajectory associated with the Zeno dynamics can finally be characterized as a result of a specific projection or/and an optimization procedure applied to the original dynamic model. The obtained analytic and variational techniques provide an effective methodology for constructive approximations of the general Zeno-type behaviour. We also discuss shortly some possible applications of the proposed approximation schemes.

We deal with an application of the fixed point theorem for nonexpansive mappings to a class of control systems. We study closed-loop and open-loop controllable dynamical systems governed by ordinary differential equations (ODEs) and establish convexity of the set of trajectories. Solutions to the above ODEs are considered as fixed points of the associated system-operator. If convexity of the set of trajectories is established, this can be used to estimate and approximate the reachable set of dynamical systems under consideration. The estimations/approximations of the above type are important in various engineering applications as, for example, the verification of safety properties.

In the present work, we consider a class of nonlinear optimal control problems, which can be called “optimal control problems in mechanics.” We deal with control systems whose dynamics can be described by a system of Euler-Lagrange or Hamilton equations. Using the variational structure of the solution of the corresponding boundary-value problems, we reduce the initial optimal control problem to an auxiliary problem of multiobjective programming. This technique makes it possible to apply some consistent numerical approximations of a multiobjective optimization problem to the initial optimal control problem. For solving the auxiliary problem, we propose an implementable numerical algorithm.

We study Frèchet differentiable stable operators in real Banach spaces. We present the theory of linear and nonlinear stable operators in a systematic way and prove solvability theorems for operator equations with differentiable expanding operators. In addition, some relations to the theory of monotone operators in Hilbert spaces are discussed. Using the obtained solvability results, we formulate the corresponding fixed point theorem for a class of nonlinear expanding operators.