Why use PSOPT?

These are some reasons why users may wish to use PSOPT:

• Users who do not have access to commercial optimal control solvers and wish to employ a free, open-source package for optimal control that does not require a proprietary software environment.

• Users who need to link an optimal control solver from a C++ application.

• Users who prefer to work in Python: the Python interface allows problems to be defined and solved without writing any C++, while retaining the speed of the C++ computational engine.

• Researchers who want to experiment with modern transcription methods — including hp-adaptive pseudospectral collocation and integrated-residual transcription — within an open codebase that they can inspect, customise and extend.

• Users who want to do research with the software, for instance by implementing their own problems, or by customising the code.

PSOPT does not require a commercial software environment to run on, or to be compiled. PSOPT is fully compatible with the GNU compiler collection and with Clang, and it can be built on a wide range of Linux distributions as well as on macOS, including Apple Silicon machines. Windows users can build and run PSOPT using the Docker container provided with the distribution.