Solvability of the Inverse Optimal Control problem based on the minimum principle

In this paper, the solvability of the Inverse Optimal Control (IOC) problem based on two existing minimum principal methods, is analysed. The aim of this work is to answer the question regarding what kinds of trajectories, that is depending on the initial conditions of the closed-loop system and system dynamics, of the original optimal control problem, will result in the recovery of the true weights of the reward function for both the soft and the hard-constrained methods 1, 2. Analytical conditions are provided which allow to verify if a trajectory is sufficiently conditioned, that is, holds sufficient information to recover the true weights of an optimal control problem. It was found that the open-loop system of the original optimal problem has a stronger influence on the solvability of the Inverse Optimal Control problem for the hard-constrained method as compared to the soft-constrained method. These analytical results were validated via simulation.