Solution to the variation problem for information path functional of a controlled random process

The paper introduces a new approach to dynamic modeling, using the variation principle, applied to a functional on trajectories of a controlled random process, and its connection to the process’ information functional. In [V.S. Lerner, Dynamic approximation of a random information functional, J. Math. Anal. Appl. 327 (1) (2007) 494–514, available online 5-24-06], we presented the information path functional with the Lagrangian, determined by the parameters of a controlled stochastic equation. In this paper, the solution to the path functional’s variation problem provides both a dynamic model of a random process and the model’s optimal control, which allows us to build a two-level information model with a random process at the microlevel and a dynamic process at the macrolevel. A wide class of random objects, modeled by the Markov diffusion process and a common structure of the process’ information functional, leads to a universal information structure of the dynamic model, which is specified and identified on a particular object with the applied optimal control functions. The developed mathematical formalism, based on classical methods, is aimed toward the solution of problems identification, combined with an optimal control synthesis, which is practically implemented and also demonstrated in the paper’s example. © 2006 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.