We consider the Lagrange problem of optimal control with unrestricted
controls and address the question: under what conditions we can assure optimal
controls are bounded? This question is related to the one of Lipschitzian
regularity of optimal trajectories, and the answer to it is crucial for closing
the gap between the conditions arising in the existence theory and necessary
optimality conditions. Rewriting the Lagrange problem in a parametric form, we
obtain a relation between the applicability conditions of the Pontryagin
maximum principle to the later problem and the Lipschitzian regularity
conditions for the original problem. Under the standard hypotheses of
coercivity of the existence theory, the conditions imply that the optimal
controls are essentially bounded, assuring the applicability of the classical
necessary optimality conditions like the Pontryagin maximum principle. The
result extends previous Lipschitzian regularity results to cover optimal
control problems with general nonlinear dynamics.Comment: This research was partially presented, as an oral communication, at
the international conference EQUADIFF 10, Prague, August 27-31, 2001.
Accepted for publication in the journal Mathematics of Control, Signals, and
Systems (MCSS). See http://www.mat.ua.pt/delfim for other work