Hierarchical Control for the Wave Equation with a Moving Boundary

This paper addresses the study of the hierarchical control for the one‐dimensional wave equation in intervals with a moving boundary. This equation models the motion of a string where an endpoint is fixed and the other one is moving. When the speed of the moving endpoint is less than the characteristic speed, the controllability of this equation is established. We assume that we can act on the dynamic of the system by a hierarchy of controls. According to the formulation given by Stackelberg (Marktform und Gleichgewicht. Springer, Berlin, 1934), there are local controls called followers and global controls called leaders. In fact, one considers situations where there are two cost (objective) functions. One possible way is to cut the control into two parts, one being thought of as ‘the leader’ and the other one as ‘the follower.’ This situation is studied in the paper, with one of the cost functions being of the controllability type. We present the following results: the existence and uniqueness of Nash equilibrium, the approximate controllability with respect to the leader control, and the optimality system for the leader control.