International Journal of Modern Nonlinear Theory and Application, 2013, 2, 153-160
http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/ijmnta.2013.23020 Published Online September 2013 (http://www.scirp.org/journal/ijmnta)
Approximate Controllability of Fractional Order Retarded
Semilinear Control Systems
Simegne Tafesse1, Nagarajan Sukavanam2
1Department of Mathematics, Haramaya University, Dire Dawa, Ethiopia
2Department of Mathematics, Indian Institute Technology Roorkee (IITR), Roorkee, India
Email: wtsimegne@gmail.com
Received June 4, 2013; revised July 6, 2013; accepted July 25, 2013
Copyright © 2013 Simegne Tafesse, Nagarajan Sukavanam. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons
Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is
properly cited.
ABSTRACT
In this paper, approximate controllability of fractional order retarded semilinear systems is studied when the nonlinear
term satisfies the newly formulated bounded integral contractor-type conditions. We have shown the existence and
uniqueness of the mild solution for the fractional order retarded semilinear systems using an iterative procedure ap-
proach. Finally, we obtain the approximate con trollab ility results of the system under simple condition.
Keywords: Approximate Controllability; Fraction a l Order; Existence and Uniqueness, Retarded; Semilinear System;
Integral Contractor
1. Introduction
Let X and U be Hilbert spaces with the corresponding
function spaces
20, :
Z
L
X
and
20, :YL U
respectively. Consider the following fractional order se-
milinear system
 

 

,,0
,,0
Cq
t
DxtAxtButftxt
xh
t

 
 (1.1)
where is the fractional order qth derivative in
Cq
t
Dx
Caputo’s sense, 11
2q
, A is the infinitesimal genera-
tor of a Co-semigroup T(t) of bounded linear op erator on
the Hilbert space X, B is a bounded linear operator from
, f is a nonlinear function such that YZ
:0, ,0:
f
Ch XX 
,
:,0
t
x
hX
is de-
fined as
 
for
t,0
x
xt



,0:Ch Xh
 and
. The norm in X shall be denoted by
 ..
The corresponding linear fractional order system is
given by
 
 

,0
,,0
Cq
t
DxtAxt Butt
xh

 

(1.2)
Fractional differential equations are the generalization
of ordinary differential equations of arbitrary non integer
orders. The fractional calculus is widely popular in the
field of engineering and sciences, Shantanu [1]. Debnath
[2] studied the recent applications of fractional calculus
to dynamical systems in control theory, electrical circuits
with fractance, generalized voltage divider, viscoelastic-
ity etc. Many papers have appeared on the controllability
concepts for fractional order differential systems. For
instance, Wang and Zhou [3] studied complete controlla-
bility of fractional evolution systems. In that paper frac-
tional calculus method and fixed point theorem are used.
The semigroup operator is assumed to be noncompact.
Similarly controllability of fractional order impulsive
neutral functional infinite delay integrodifferential sys-
tems in Banach space is studied by Tai and Wang [4].
Sakthivel et al. [5] discussed the controllability of a class
of control systems governed by the semilinear fractional
equations in Hilbert spaces using fixed point techniques.
Kumar and Sukavanam [6] studied approximate control-
lability of fractional order semilinear systems with
bounded delay. In that paper contraction principle and
Schauder fixed point theorem are used. Zhou and Jiao [7]
and El-Borai [8] studied the existence of mild solutions
for fractional neutral evolution systems.
The notion of integral contractor was first introduced
by Altman [9] and later on it was used by many authors
to study the existence and uniqueness of solution of
nonlinear evolution systems. In [10] George et al. studied
the existence and uniqueness of the solution and the con-
trollability of the nonlinear third order dispersion equa-
C
opyright © 2013 SciRes. IJMNTA
S. TAFESSE, N. SUKAVANAM
154
tion without delay using the bounded integr al contractor.
In this paper the approximate controllability of a frac-
tional order retarded semilinear system is studied. We
consider the system with the nonlinear term satisfying a
bounded regular integral contractor-type condition. Un-
der this condition we show first the existence and
uniqueness of the mild solution of the system. Then us-
ing some simple condition we obtain the approximate
controllability results.
2. Preliminaries and Basic Assumptions
Some notions of fractional order differential equations are
given as follows.
Definitio n 2 .1:
1) The fractional in tegral of order
for a function f is
defined as
  
1
00
1d, 0, 0
t
t
Ifttsfsst

provided that the right hand side is defined pointwise on
[0,). Here is the gamma function.

0t
I
ft
is called
Reimann Liouvilli integr ation.
2) Riemann-Liouville derivative order of for a func-
tion
:0,
f
R can be written as
  
1
00
1d d, 0,1
d
t
mm
tm
Dftt sfsstmm
mt


 
3) Let . Then the Caputo derivative of order for a function
0,
m
fC
:0,
f
R can be writte n as
 
 
1
0
1d,0,01
tm
Cmmm
t
Dftt sfssIfttmm
m


 

Define the mild solution of (1.1) as [7]
 




1
0
1
0,d
2
,,
tq
qq
SttsTtsBus fsxshstq
xt
tt
 

,0,1
0
h
(2.1)
where


 


11
1
00
1
d, d,0
qq
qq
q
qqq qq
StTtTt qTtw
q

  
 




,
 
 
11
1
1
11sin,
!
nqn
qn
nq
wn
n
 


 
0,q
q
is a probability density functio defined on n
0,
,
that is and
 
0, 0,
q
 


0
d1
q
 
,
 
00
11
dd
1
qq
qwq
 



 (see [7])
Let M be a constant such that

Tt M for all
0,t
. Then the following Lemma stated as follows.
Lemma 2.1: [7] Sq(t) and Tq(t) are bounded linear op-
erators and
 

andfor all0,
1
qq
M
q
St MTtt
q


.
Definition 2.2: The system (1.1) is said to be ap-
proximately controllable over a time interval
[0,
],
if for
any given 1
x
X and a constant
> 0, there exists a
control u such that the corresponding mild solution x(t)
of (1.1) satisfies
1
xx
.
Let
0, :CC X
denote the Banach space of
continuous functions on
0,J
with the standard
norm

max :0
C
xxtt for x C.By con-

sidering the nonlinear initial value problem of the form
,,0, 0xt Ftxtx

 
in Banach space X [9]
introduced a bounded integral contractor in the following
definition.
Definition 2.3: [9] A function f is said to have a
bounded integral contractor if
:
J
XBLX is a bounded operator and there
exists a positive number
such that for any w, y C
 

 




00
max ,,d,,
t
C
t
f
twtytswsyssf twttwtyty


 


(2.2)
Copyright © 2013 SciRes. IJMNTA
S. TAFESSE, N. SUKAVANAM 155
Definition 2.4: [9] A bounded integral contractor
is said to be regular if the integral equation
 


0
,d
t
ztytsws yss
(2.3)
has a solution y in C fo r ever y w, z C.
We define a bounded integral contractor operator q
for the fractional order system without delay in a similar
fashion as:
Definition 2.5: Suppose
:
q
J
XBLX is a
bounded operator and there exists a positive number
such that for any w, y Z we have
 

 



 
1
0
,,d,,
tqqq
q
f
twtytt sTt sswsyssftwttwtytyt




(2.4)
Then we say that f has a bounded integral contractor
with respect to the operator Tq(t).
q
Definition 2.6: A bounded integral contractor q
is
said to be regular if the integral equation
 


1
0
,
tqq
q
ztyttsTt sswsyss
 
has a solution y in Z for every w, z Z. Let us assume

1
,,
q
LB X
twttJ wZ
 
d
(2.5)
Let
2,:
h
Z
LhX
 . Now we define a new
bounded integral contractor-type operator so as to
make compatible with retarded system as follows.
q
h
Definition 2.7: Let
:,
q
hh h
J
CBLCX be
such that for
,0h


 


1
0
,d,0
0, ,0
tqq
qhss
q
ttt
tsTtsswyst
wy
th

 


(2.6)
If for any w, y Zh





 
,,,
qq
th
f
twt hythwytftwt htwt h yt hyt
  , (2.7)
then f is said to have an integral contractor-type operator q
h
.
It can be seen easily if , then
0
q
h
 0
q
h
 and f is Lipschitz continuous.
Let us assume that


2
,
,,,
h
qtw
ht h
LB CXtJ wZ
 and
12
max ,

. Similar to Equation (2.5) con-
sider the integral equation of the form
  



1
0
,d, 0,,
, ,0
tqq
tqhss
t
ytsTtsswystzw
z
tt
 
 
 

tth
C
h

(2.8)
Definition 2.8: If is bounded and the integral Equation (2.8) has a solution yt in Ch for every zt, wt Ch, then
is called regular on Ch.
q
h
q
h
Now we assume the following conditions:
1) The semigroup T(t), t 0, is compact and T(t) = 0 for t [–h,0)
2) f has a bounded regular integral contractor-type q
h
on Ch i.e.

,,,
qq
tttttthtt t
f
twyw yftwtw yy

3) f is uniformly bounded, i.e. there exists M1 > 0 such
that

1
,t
ftx M
4) The fractional order linear system corresponding to
(1.1) is approximate controllable
5) For all y Y there exists a constant k>0 such that
Byky
Lemma 2.2: [7] If the assumption (1) is satisfied, then
q
St and
q
Tt are also compact operators for every
t>0.
3. Main Result
Define the solution mapping W: Y Z by Wu = x where
x(t) is the unique mild solution of (1.1) corresponding to
Copyright © 2013 SciRes. IJMNTA
S. TAFESSE, N. SUKAVANAM
156
the control u(t).
Lemma 3.1: The solution mapping W is compact.
The procedure of the proof is quite similar to Lemma 1
in [11].
Theorem 3.1: Under the assumptions (1) and (2) the
abstract fractional order semilinear system (1.1) has a
unique mild solution if

1
1
q
M
q

 .
Proof: First we show the existence of the mild solution.
Consider the following iteration procedure to produce
sequences {xn(t)} and {yn(t)} in X. For –h t
  


 



1
0
0
1
0
0
0d,0
,,
,d,0
0, ,0
tq
qq
tq
nqsn
n
Stts TtsBusst
xt
tt
xttsTtsfsx shsxtt
yt
th
 

 

0h
(3.1)
 


 

 


 

 


1
10
11
0
00
11
0
00
,d
,d ,d
,d, d
tqq
nnqhsn snn
tt
qq
q
nqhsnsnnqsn
tt
qq
q
qsn qhsnsn
xtxttsTts sxysyt
x
ttsTt ssxysxttsTtsfsxsxt
t sTt sfsxst sTt ssxys xt


 




  


(3.2)




 
 
 
 



1
11 0
1
0
1
0
0
1
0
1
0
,d
,d ,
,d
tq
nnq sn
tqq
qsntsn sn
tq
qsn
ytxttsTtsfsxsxt
tsTtsfsxssxy txt
ts Ttsfsxsxt

 
 
 
(3.3)
For every t [0,
] and x C we can define xt Ch such that
, 0
t
xxth

. Hence, we consider the
following formul ation for the sequences {xtn} and {ytn}.
 


1
0
0
0d
,,
tq
qq
t
Stts TtsBusst
x
tt
 
 
 

,0
0h

 



 
1
0
0
1
,d
()
tq
tntnqsn t
q
tntnttn tn
tn
yx tsTtsfsxsx
xxy xy
 
 
 

(3.4)
Then from (3.3) we get
 



 

 



11
100
1
0
1
0
,d, d
,d
,,,,
tt
qq
q
nqsnqhsnsn
tqq
qsnsntsn sn
tqqq
qsnsntsn snsnhsn sn
y tts TtsfsxstsTtssxys
tsTtsfsxyxys
tsTtsfsxysx yfsxsx ys

  
 
 

d
Applying the definition (2.7) with yt: –ysn and wt: xsn we obtain the following inequality.
Copyright © 2013 SciRes. IJMNTA
S. TAFESSE, N. SUKAVANAM 157
  


 

 

 
 
1
10
1
0
11
0
00
,,
,,,
dmax
11
h
tqqq
nqsnsntsn snsnhsn sn
tqqq
qtttttthtt
tt
qq
sn n
Ch
yttsTtsfsxyxyfsxsxys
tsTtsf swywyfswswys
Mq Mq
ts ystsyss
qq




 
 
 

,d
d
d
  
  
 
1
10
2
1
1
0
0
maxmax d
1
max max
11
max
1
tq
nn
ht ht
qq
nn
ht ht
n
q
h
Mq
ytyt tss
q
MM
ytyt
qq
Myt
q


 

 
 







 







(3.5)
Since

1
1
q
M
q

 , as n w e ha ve


1
1
0lim0
1
n
q
n
n
Myth
q

,


 




Hence the for all t [0,
]. lim 0
n
ny

Now we show the convergence of the sequence xn(t) to the mild solution of the system (1.1). From (3.2) we have






1
1
q
tntnttntn
tn
q
nn ttntn
n
xxyxy
xtxt ytxy
 


  
Note that if 0t
 then


10
n
n
xt xt

  and
0
n
yt
t
Thus for 0

  

  


1
10
1
0
0
,d
,max d
h
tqq
nn nqhsnsn
C
tqq
nqhsnn
h
x
txt yttsTtssxy
ytts Ttssxyss
 


  
 
s
Define :tt
 then we get
   


   
 
1
10
0
1
00
1
0
0
,max d
max d
1
1max
1(1)
tqq
nn nqhsnn
t
tq
nn
t
n
qq
t
x
txtytts Ttssxyts
Mq
ytyt tss
q
MM yt
qq
 



 
 







 


Consider the sequence of {xn(t)} in X. For a positive integers m and n, assume m < n. Then from the above proce-
dures we have
 
  
  
112 1
1
1
0
0
1max
11
nm
nnn nm m
k
qq
n
tkm
xt xt
x
txtxtx txtxt
MM
yt
qq
 


  

 


 
 

 
 

Copyright © 2013 SciRes. IJMNTA
S. TAFESSE, N. SUKAVANAM
158
Clearly the right hand side is the tail of a convergent series for sufficiently large m and n since

1
1
q
M
q

 . Thus
the sequence xn is a Cauchy sequence in C hence the sequence converges to say x in X.
Therefore from (3.1) we have
 

 
 


  

1
0
0
1
0
0
1
00
limlimlim, d,0,
0,d
,d
tq
nnq sn
nnn
tq
qs
tq
qs
ytxtts Ttsfsxsxtt
xtt sTt sfsxsxt
xtxtt sTt sfsxs
 


 

 
Hence x(t) is a mild solution of th e system (1.1).
Now let us show the uniqueness of a mild solution. Let x1(t) and x2(t) be the two mild solutions of (1.1) with control u.
By the regularity of the integral co ntractor type q
h
with 2tt t
zxx
1
there exists yt in Ch such that
  

 

 


1
1
0
1
21 1
0
11
,d
,d
tqq
ttq hss
tqq
tttqhs
q
tthtt
zy tsTtssxys
s
x
xy tsTtssxy
xy xy
 
 
 
 
 

s
But



 



 

1
212 1
0
1
11 11
0
1
1
0
,,d
,,
,d
tq
qss
tqqq
qsstssshs
tqq
qhss
xtxttsTts fsxfsxs
tsTtsfsxyx yfsxsxys
tsTtssx ys


 
,d
s
 



 


 


 
1
211 1
0
1
11
0
11
00
0
,,
,d ,d
dd
11
max
1
hh
tqq
qsstss
tq
qq
hssq hss
tt
qq
ss
CC
q
n
h
1
s
x
txtt sTt sfsxyxyfsx
s
xystsTtssxys
Mq Mq
tsys tsys
qq
Mys
q

 


  
 
 
 
 


Note that if t + [–h,0], then
1
xtt xt
2
 
 
 
0
t
y
and we put . Moreover,
and .

0yt

  
112 2
0, 0
tt
xt xxt x

yt
Hence
 

1
21 1
0
,d
tqq
qhss
x
txtyttsTts sxy
 
s
s
Then we have
  

1
211
0
,d
tqq
qhs
ytxtxttsTt ssxys

Copyright © 2013 SciRes. IJMNTA
S. TAFESSE, N. SUKAVANAM
Copyright © 2013 SciRes. IJMNTA
159
This implies that
 





 
1
21 1
0
1
0
1
0
0
,, ,
1
d
1
max d
1
h
tqq
sshs
tq
sC
tq
n
h
Mq
yttsf sxfsxsxys
q
Mq ts y s
q
Mq tsys s
q

 



 

d
s
Since the integrand in the right hand side is positive
then the integral is an increasing function of t. Hence the abstract retarded semilinear control system (1.1) is
approximate controllable.
Proof: Let w(t) be the solution of the linear control
system (1.2) corresponding to the control v and consider
the following system.
 
 
1
0
maxmax d
1
tq
n
hrt hst
Mq
yrtsy ss
q
 


By Gronwall’s inequality y(t) becomes zero for all t
0. Since


 

,,,0
,,0
Cq
ttt
DxtAxtftxBvt ftwt
xh

 

(3.6)
 
0
max max
h
tChht
y
yt yt

 

This implies that yt is zero. Therefore, x2 = x1 whic h
means that the mild solution of (1.1) is unique. This
completes the proof of the theorem.
Note that the above system is the same as the system
(1.1) in which Bu is replaced by

,t
Bvtftw. We
define the mild solution of the linear system (1.2) as
Theorem 3.2: Consider the assumptions (1)-(5), then
  



1
0
0d
,,
tq
qq
Stts TtsBvsst
wt
tt
,0,
0h
 

(3.7)
And the mild solution of the system (3.6) is
  





1
0
0,,
,,
tq
qq ss
SttsTtsBvsfswfsxs t
xt
tt
d,0,,
0h
 

(3.8)
But by the regularity condition with there exists yt such that
tt
zwx
t


 

1
1
1
0
,d
q
tttttss
q
ttttss
tqq
ttqh ss
zwxy xy
ywx xy
wxtsTtssxys


 
Taking the norms we get


1
0
d
1
hh
tq
ttt s
CC
Mq
h
C
y
wxts y s
q
 

By Gronwall’s inequality

exp 1
hh
q
ttt
CC
M
ywxq





(3.9)
Subtracting (3.8) from (3.7) and taking norm on both sides we get
S. TAFESSE, N. SUKAVANAM
160

 

 








1
0
1
0
1
0
1
0
1
0
,, ,
,d
,, ,
1
d
1
d
1
h
h
h
tqq
ttqssh ss
C
tqq
qhss
tqq
sshss
tq
sC
tq
sC
wxtsTtsfswfsxsxy s
ts Ttssxys
Mq tsf swfsxsxys
q
Mq ts ys
q
Mq ts y s
q

 
 
 





d
d
(3.10)
From (3.9) and (3.10) it follows that

 


 
 
1
0
1
0
0
exp d
11
exp maxd
11
h h
h
t
qq
tt ss
C C
t
qq
C
h
Mq M
wxts wxs
qq
MqM tsws xss
qq



 


 


 





 

Since the integrand in the right hand side is positive then the integral is an increasing function of t. He nce

 
  
1
0 0
0
supexpsup d
11
t
qq
tt
rt st
Mq M
wxts wsxss
qq


 

 


 

Again Gronwall’s inequality implies

wt xt for
all t [–h,
]. Under condition (5) the equation
has a solution u(t). Therefore, the fra-
ctional order retarded semilinear control system (1.1) is
approximately controllable with control u.
,t
BuBvft x
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