The goal of “optimal control” is to develop a strategy to control a system (process) in the optimal or “best” possible manner. Academicians use mathematical techniques to prove that the optimal control strategy is in fact the “best” that can be done. Typically this is performed using a model of the system to mathematically prove that a given performance measure is optimized when using a particular control strategy.
One classic example of an optimal control problem is the desire by the military to get an airplane from the ground to a certain altitude in minimum time. Intuitively it would seem that the airplane should take off and ascend at maximum throttle. However, mathematical models show that the airplane should actually reduce its altitude at a certain time during its ascent in order to increase its velocity to arrive at its target altitude in the shortest possible time.
