Fourier-Gegenbauer Pseudospectral Method for Solving Periodic Fractional Optimal Control Problems

Abstract: This paper introduces a new accurate model for periodic fractional optimal control problems (PFOCPs) using Riemann-Liouville (RL) and Caputo fractional derivatives (FDs) with sliding fixed memory lengths. The paper also provides a novel numerical method for solving PFOCPs using Fourier and Gegenbauer pseudospectral methods. By employing Fourier collocation at equally spaced nodes and Fourier and Gegenbauer quadratures, the method transforms the PFOCP into a simple constrained nonlinear programming problem (NLP) that can be treated easily using standard NLP solvers. We propose a new transformation that largely simplifies the problem of calculating the periodic FDs of periodic functions to the problem of evaluating the integral of the first derivatives of their trigonometric Lagrange interpolating polynomials, which can be treated accurately and efficiently using Gegenbauer quadratures. We introduce the notion of the {\alpha}th-order fractional integration matrix with index L based on Fourier and Gegenbauer pseudospectral approximations, which proves to be very effective in computing periodic FDs. We also provide a rigorous priori error analysis to predict the quality of the Fourier-Gegenbauer-based approximations to FDs. The numerical results of the benchmark PFOCP demonstrate the performance of the proposed pseudospectral method.