UNBOUNDED CONTROL, INFIMUM GAPS, AND HIGHER ORDER NORMALITY

In optimal control theory one sometimes extends the minimization domain of a given problem, with the aim of achieving the existence of an optimal control. However, this issue is naturally confronted with the possibility of a gap between the original infimum value and the extended one. Avoiding this phenomenon is not a trivial issue, especially when the trajectories are subject to endpoint constraints. However, since the seminal works by Warga, some authors have recognized "normality"of an extended minimizer as a condition guaranteeing the absence of an infimum gap. Yet, normality is far from being necessary for this goal, a fact that makes the search for weaker assumptions a reasonable aim. In relation to a control-affine system with unbounded controls, in this paper we prove a sufficient no-gap condition based on a notion of higher order normality, which is less demanding than the standard normality and involves iterated Lie brackets of the vector fields defining the dynamics.