Upper-level undergraduate text introduces aspects of optimal control theory: dynamic programming, Pontryagin's minimum principle, and numerical techniques for trajectory optimization. Numerous figures, tables. Solution guide available upon request. 1970 edition.

I. Describing the System and Evaluating Its Performance.
1. Introduction.
2. The Performance Measure.
II. Dynamic Programming.
3. Dynamic Programming.
III. The Calculus of Variations and Pontryagin's Minimum Principle.
4. The Calculus of Variations.
5. The Variational Approach to Optimal Control Problems.
IV. Iterative Numerical Techniques for Finding Optimal Controls and Trajectories.
6. Numerical Determination of Optimal Trajectories.
V. Conclusion.
7. Summation.
Appendices.
Index.