Visual MISER: An efficient user-friendly visual program for solving optimal control problems

Abstract

The FORTRAN MISER software package has been used with great success over the past two decades to solve many practically important real world optimal control problems. However, MISER is written in FORTRAN and hence not user-friendly, requiring FORTRAN programming knowledge. To facilitate the practical application of powerful optimal control theory and techniques, this paper describes a Visual version of the MISER software, called Visual MISER. Visual MISER provides an easy-to-use interface, while retaining the computational efficiency of the original FORTRAN MISER software. The basic concepts underlying the MISER software, which include the control parameterization technique, a time scaling transform, a constraint transcription technique, and the co-state approach for gradient calculation, are described in this paper. The software structure is explained and instructions for its use are given. Finally, an example is solved using the new Visual MISER software to demonstrate its applicability.