Optimal control of hybrid dynamical systems with the maximum principle: application to a nonlinear chemical process

Chemical products manufacturing must consider sequences which lead them from an initial phase to a final one. In each phase the dynamic evolutions in the process are continuous. This paper presents a new method that minimizes the overall operating time to obtain the desired products, with respect to the constraints on the continuous variables. It is based on the Pontryagin´s maximum principle extended to discrete controlled hybrid dynamical systems. It is illustrated using a nonlinear chemical process