Solving optimal control problems using chebfun

Chebfun is an extension to MATLAB that enables problems with continuous functions and operators to be solved with simple, concise coding and near machine accuracy. Thus it has potential to be useful in solving optimal control problems. Its capabilities for this are explored in this paper and a direct method for solving optimal control problems using chebfuns is described. The approaches are demonstrated with several test cases from flight guidance and aeronautics, namely the minimum time-to-climb problem, the intercept problem and the trajectory planning problem.