DIDO

DIDO optimal control software is powered by pseudospectral technology and is the minimalist's approach to solving optimal control problems. Only the problem formulation is required to use DIDO. Absolutely no knowledge of the underlying pseudospectral theory is needed to generate and validate optimal control results. Other than the optimal states, control, and time, DIDO automatically outputs the Hamiltonian, costates, path covectors, and endpoint covectors. This information can be used alongside classical tools such as Pontryagin’s principle to instantly verify numerical results.

The input to DIDO is just the problem formulation made possible through the use of DIDO's unique expressions. This generality of the problem-posing structure allows for fairly complex interior point constraints, predefined segments, differentially flat segments, transition conditions, mid-maneuver changes in dynamics, multidynamical systems, mid-maneuver changes in the cost function, switches, discrete events, and a host of other possibilities that may naturally arise in many practical problems.

DIDO has been used to solve industrial problems in aerospace, robotics, unmanned systems, biotech, and more.

DIDO is a MATLAB tool for solving optimal control problems. It complements Optimization Toolbox™ by extending it to solving dynamic optimization problems. The inputs are MATLAB code files that describe the optimal control problem in a structured format. Thus, one calls DIDO as simply as dido(problem), where problem is a structure that defines the problem; for instance, problem.cost ='myCostFile.m'. The DIDO outputs are MATLAB structures that provide both the primal and dual solutions to the problem. Users can access the full power of MATLAB to plot, visualize, and analyze the various outputs from DIDO.