A Class of Delay Optimal Control Problems and Viscosity Solutions to Associated Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman Equations

Abstract: In this article, a class of optimal control problems of differential equations with delays are investigated for which the associated Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman (HJB) equations are nonlinear partial differential equations with delays. This type of HJB equation has not been previously studied and is difficult to solve because the state equations do not possess smoothing properties. We introduce a slightly different notion of viscosity solutions and identify the value function of the optimal control problems as a unique viscosity solution to the associated HJB equations.