Vectorized Sparse Second-Order Forward Automatic Differentiation for Optimal Control Direct Methods

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Zou, Yilin, Jiang, Fanghua
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Zou, Yilin
Jiang, Fanghua
author_facet Zou, Yilin
Jiang, Fanghua
contents Direct collocation methods are widely used numerical techniques for solving optimal control problems. The discretization of continuous-time optimal control problems transforms them into large-scale nonlinear programming problems, which require efficient computation of first- and second-order derivatives. To achieve computational efficiency, these derivatives must be computed in sparse and vectorized form, exploiting the problem's inherent sparsity structure. This paper presents a vectorized sparse second-order forward automatic differentiation framework designed for direct collocation methods in optimal control. The method exploits the problem's sparse structure to efficiently compute derivatives across multiple mesh points. By incorporating both scalar and vector nodes within the expression graph, the approach enables effective parallelization and optimized memory access patterns while maintaining flexibility for complex problems. The methodology is demonstrated through application to a prototype optimal control problem. A complete implementation for multi-phase optimal control problems is available as an open-source package, supporting both theoretical research and practical applications.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2506_11537
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Vectorized Sparse Second-Order Forward Automatic Differentiation for Optimal Control Direct Methods
Zou, Yilin
Jiang, Fanghua
Systems and Control
Optimization and Control
Direct collocation methods are widely used numerical techniques for solving optimal control problems. The discretization of continuous-time optimal control problems transforms them into large-scale nonlinear programming problems, which require efficient computation of first- and second-order derivatives. To achieve computational efficiency, these derivatives must be computed in sparse and vectorized form, exploiting the problem's inherent sparsity structure. This paper presents a vectorized sparse second-order forward automatic differentiation framework designed for direct collocation methods in optimal control. The method exploits the problem's sparse structure to efficiently compute derivatives across multiple mesh points. By incorporating both scalar and vector nodes within the expression graph, the approach enables effective parallelization and optimized memory access patterns while maintaining flexibility for complex problems. The methodology is demonstrated through application to a prototype optimal control problem. A complete implementation for multi-phase optimal control problems is available as an open-source package, supporting both theoretical research and practical applications.
title Vectorized Sparse Second-Order Forward Automatic Differentiation for Optimal Control Direct Methods
topic Systems and Control
Optimization and Control
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.11537