Dirac structures and reduction of optimal control problems with symmetries

Abstract. We discuss the use of Dirac structures to obtain a better under-standing of the geometry of a class of optimal control problems and their reduction by symmetries. In particular we will show how to extend the reduc-tion of Dirac structures recently proposed by Yoshimura and Marsden [Yo09] to describe the reduction of a class of optimal control problems with a Lie group of symmetry. We will prove that, as in the case of reduction of implicit Hamiltonian or Lagrangian systems, the reduction of the variational principle and the reduction of the Dirac structure describing the Pontryagin Maximum Principle first order differential conditions coincide. Moreover they will also reproduce E. Mart́ınez Lie algebroids reduction approach [Mr04] to optimal control systems with symmetry. The geodesic subriemannian problem consid-ered as an optimal control problem on the Heisenberg group, will be discussed as a simple example illustrating these results. Content