A Turnpike Property for Optimal Control Problems with Dynamic Probabilistic Constraints

We consider systems that are governed by linear time-discrete dynamics with an initial condition and a terminal condition for the expected values. We study optimal control problems where in the objective function a term of tracking type for the expected values and a control cost appear. In addition, the feasible states have to satisfy a conservative probabilistic constraint that requires that the probability that the trajectories remain in a given set F is greater than or equal to a given lower bound. An application are optimal control problems related to storage management systems with uncertain in- and output. We give sufficient conditions that imply that the optimal expected trajectories remain close to a certain state that can be characterized as the solution of an optimal control problem without prescribed initial- and terminal condition. In this way we contribute to the study of the turnpike phenomenon that is well-known in mathematical economics and make a step towards the extension of the turnpike theory to problems with probabilistic constraints.