Asymmetric games for convolution systems with applications to feedback control of constrained parabolic equations

The paper is devoted to the study of some classes of feedback control problems for linear parabolic equations subject to hard/pointwise constraints on both Dirichlet boundary controls and state dynamic/output functions in the presence of uncertain perturbations within given regions. The underlying problem under consideration, originally motivated by automatic control of the groundwater regime in irrigation networks, is formalized as a minimax problem of optimal control, where the control strategy is sought as a feedback law. Problems of this type are among the most important in control theory and applications — while most challenging and difficult. Based on the Maximum Principle for parabolic equations and on the time convolution structure, we reformulate the problems under consideration as certain asymmetric games, which become the main object of our study in this paper.We establish some simple conditions for the existence of winning and losing strategies for the game players, which then allow us to clarify controllability issues in the feedback control problem for such constrained parabolic systems. © 2006 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.