The applications of the theory of Optimal Control of distributed parameters is an extremely wide field and, although a large number of questions remain open, the whole subject continues to expand very rapidly. The author does not attempt to cover the field but does discuss a number of the more interesting areas of application.

The report is a survey of theoretical and computational methods in the field of optimal control of distributed parameter systems. This includes systems described by integral equations and partial differential equations. The various studies which have been done are grouped according to the method employed. A number of applications and potential applications of these methods are discussed, and certain deficiencies in the current state of knowledge are noted. Difficulties and opportunities in practical applications are discussed, and suggestions are offered for directions of research to render the results more readily usable. A list of references is included numbering more than 250 items: papers, report, and books.

The book is devoted to the study of distributed control problems governed by various nonsmooth state systems. The main questions investigated include: existence of optimal pairs, first order optimality conditions, state-constrained systems, approximation and discretization, bang-bang and regularity properties for optimal control. In order to give the reader a better overview of the domain, several sections deal with topics that do not enter directly into the announced subject: boundary control, delay differential equations. In a subject still actively developing, the methods can be more important than the results and these include: adapted penalization techniques, the singular control systems approach, the variational inequality method, the Ekeland variational principle. Some prerequisites relating to convex analysis, nonlinear operators and partial differential equations are collected in the first chapter or are supplied appropriately in the text. The monograph is intended for graduate students and for researchers interested in this area of mathematics.