A trust-region method for optimal control of ODEs with continuous-or-off controls and TV regularization
Optimization and Control
2026-05-22 v2
Abstract
A solution algorithm for a special class of optimal control problems subject to an ordinary differential equation is proposed. The controls possess a continuous-or-off structure and are priced by a convex function. Additionally, a total variation regularization is applied to penalize switches. Our solution method combines a trust-region method and a proximal gradient method. The subproblems are solved via Bellman's optimality principle. Convergence with respect to a criticality measure is proven. As a numerical example, we solve a simple optimal control problem involving an SIR model.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2508.10692,
title = {A trust-region method for optimal control of ODEs with continuous-or-off controls and TV regularization},
author = {Markus Friedemann and Gerd Wachsmuth},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2508.10692},
year = {2026}
}