This edited book is dedicated to Professor N. U. Ahmed, a leading scholar and a renowned researcher in optimal control and optimization on the occasion of his retirement from the Department of Electrical Engineering at University of Ottawa in 1999. The contributions of this volume are in the areas of optimal control, non­ linear optimization and optimization applications. They are mainly the im­ proved and expanded versions of the papers selected from those presented in two special sessions of two international conferences. The first special session is Optimization Methods, which was organized by K. L. Teo and X. Q. Yang for the International Conference on Optimization and Variational Inequality, the City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 1998. The other one is Optimal Control, which was organized byK. ~Teo and L. Caccetta for the Dynamic Control Congress, Ottawa, 1999. This volume is divided into three parts: Optimal Control; Optimization Methods; and Applications. The Optimal Control part is concerned with com­ putational methods, modeling and nonlinear systems. Three computational methods for solving optimal control problems are presented: (i) a regularization method for computing ill-conditioned optimal control problems, (ii) penalty function methods that appropriately handle final state equality constraints, and (iii) a multilevel optimization approach for the numerical solution of opti­ mal control problems. In the fourth paper, the worst-case optimal regulation involving linear time varying systems is formulated as a minimax optimal con­ trol problem.

Preface. An Appreciation of Professor N.U. Ahmed. A Publication List of Professor N.U. Ahmed. Part I: Optimal Control. 1. Practical Stability of Impulsive Delay Differential Equations and Applications to Control Problems; G. Ballinger, X. Liu. 2. A Review of Ill-Conditioning and Regularization in Optimal Control Computation; F. Benyah, L.S. Jennings. 3. Worst-Case Optimal Regulation of Linear Systems in the Presence of Structured Perturbations; S.K. Biswas, M.B. Subrahmanyam. 4. True Proportional Navigation System with Acceleration Saturation Constraint; C.-C. Lim, M. Li. 5. Evaluation of Penalty Functions for Optimal Control; R. Luus, et al. 6. On the Optimal Control Systems with Multiple Controllers; K. Moriwaki. 7. Multilevel Optimization of Optimal Control Problems; V. Rehbock. 8. Modified Direct Gradient Descent Control of Nonlinear Systems; K. Shimizu, et al. 9. Computation of Feedback Control for Infinite Time Optimal Control Problems; K.H. Wong, G. Peter. Part II: Optimization Methods. 10. A Homogenized Cutting Plane Method to Solve the Convex Feasibility Problem; E.D. Andersen, et al. 11. Algorithms for Some Hard Knapsack Problems; L. Caccetta, A. Kulanoot. 12. Non-Static Network Optimization Problems: A Survey; X. Cai, et al. 13. Asymptotic Rates of Convergence of SQP-Type Methods of Feasible Directions; M.M. Kostreva, X. Chen. 14. Nonlinear Lagrangian Methods in Constrained Nonlinear Optimization; D. Li, X. Sun. 15. Parallel Algorithms for Solving Large-Scale Nonlinear Optimization Problems; P.K.-H. Phua, et al. 16. Second Order Strict Converse Duality in Nonlinear Fractional Programming; X.M. Yang, et al. Part III: Optimization Applications. 17. Chebyshev Optimization of Circular Arrays; M. Dahl, et al. 18. Optimum Pole Position for Digital Laguerre Network With Least Square Error Criterion; H.H. Dam, et al. 19. A Markov Model for the Stochastic Optimal Control of a Solar Powered Car; P. Howlett. 20. The Personnel Task Scheduling Problem; M. Krishnamoorthy, A.T. Ernst. 21. Envelope Constrained Filter Design: Robustness Issues; B. Vo, A. Cantoni. 22. A Robust Numerical Algorithm for the Optimal Control of Heat Transfer in the Continuous Casting of Steel; Y.H. Wu, et al.