Direct transcription solution of inequality constrained optimal control problems

Direct transcription is a popular way to solve the complex optimal control problems that arise in industry. With a direct transcription approach, the problem is fully discretized and then the discrete problem is solved numerically. Recently, it has been shown that the theory for direct transcription differs in several key ways from the theory for other approaches. These differences have implications for numerical algorithms and the interpretation of solutions to practical problems. This paper examines some of those differences.