Numerical solution for fractional optimal control problems by Hermite polynomials

Abstract

In this study, a numerical method based on Hermite polynomial approximation for solving a class of fractional optimal control problems is presented. The order of the fractional derivative is taken as less than one and described in the Caputo sense. Operational matrices of integration by using such known formulas as Caputo and Riemann–Liouville operators for computing fractional derivatives and integration of polynomials is introduced and used to reduce the problem of a system of algebraic equations. The convergence of the proposed method is analyzed, and the error upper bound for the operational matrix of the fractional integration is obtained. To confirm the validity and accuracy of the proposed numerical method, three numerical examples are presented along with a comparison between our numerical results and those obtained using Legendre polynomials. Illustrative examples are included to demonstrate the validity and applicability of the new technique.