1. Introduction
Many real-world problems, including those in engineering, production planning, and finance, are addressed through multi-objective programming problems. Research over the years has been progressively centered on multi-objective programming problem in various areas of mathematics such as optimal control theory, game theory, statistics, and finance. Numerous researchers have extensively examined the necessary and sufficient optimality conditions and important duality theorems for multi-objective control problems [
1,
2,
3,
4]. Mititelu and Treanţă [
5] established necessary and sufficient efficiency conditions for multi-objective control problems that incorporate multiple integrals.
Multi-dimensional (multi-time) optimization problems have recently found applications in many fields of the mathematical, economic, and engineering sciences. Additionally, a number of application-oriented problems that arise in a wide range of scientific and engineering disciplines, notably structural optimization, shape-optimization in fluid mechanics and medicine, and optimal process control, which require constraints as partial differential equations/inequations (PDEs and PDIs). The optimality conditions of control problems with constraints as nonlinear equalities and inequalities are developed and investigated by a lot of authors. Treanţă [
6] derived efficiency conditions for a class of multi-objective fractional-control problems together with a multi-time concept involving partial derivatives of higher order. In [
7], multi-time variational problems of some functionals governed by second-order Lagrangians are considered and optimality conditions are developed. The latest developments in this field can be seen in [
8,
9,
10].
Since empirical mechanisms are extremely complicated and frequently involve uncertainty in the original data, many researchers have focused on optimization problems incorporating uncertainty in control problems. Treanţă and Das [
11] discussed robustness in optimization problems with curvilinear integrals having applications in mechanical work. A new modified robust control problem involving mixed constraints and second-order PDEs is discussed in [
12]. Baranwal et al. [
13] formulated two important duals in the literature, namely, Mond Weir and Wolfe type, for a given multi-time control problem amidst data uncertainty involving constraints as partial differential equations of the first order and further established robust duality theorems. Recently, for a robust variational control problem incorporating data uncertainty, the necessary and sufficient optimality conditions are established in [
14].
Encouraged by the aforementioned research work, we study multi-dimensional a robust variational control problem involving partial derivatives of the first order in constraints. Considering uncertainty in both objective functional and constraints, we aim to investigate robust efficiency conditions for scalar, multi-objective, and multi-objective fractional-control problems using the notion of a convex functional. The limitations of the proposed approach could be the convexity assumptions. However, we can overcome these limitations by using a generalized convexity (for example, invexity). This can be the topic of a new future work.
The article is organized in the following manner. We start 
Section 2 by providing some important preliminaries. Further, we present the formulation of the robust multi-dimensional variational control problem (scalar, vector, and vector fractional) concerning uncertainty in both objective functional and constraints. The non-fractional-control problem associated with the robust fractional-control problem is also provided. In 
Section 3, we develop robust necessary efficiency conditions for robust multi-dimensional scalar, vector, and vector fractional-control problems defined in 
Section 2. Subsequently, 
Section 4 provides robust sufficient efficiency conditions for the problems under consideration using the convexity assumptions of involved integrals.
  2. Problem Formulation and Preliminaries
Consider the euclidean spaces of the dimensions , and n as , and , respectively, and a compact subset denoted by  in . Define the multi-time argument , , such that t . Define the state functions having continuous first-order partial derivatives as , where , and denote the continuous control functions in the space M as . Next, the following rules are considered for any two vectors :
- (i)
- (ii)
- (iii)
- (iv)
Additionally, we denote 
 as 
, 
 as 
, 
. Now, we consider the following multi-dimensional 
uncertain vector control problem, considering data uncertainty in each one of the objective functional and constraints:
      where
      
      and
      
      are functionals belonging to the class of continuous first-order partial derivatives (almost everywhere), the uncertainty parameters are represented as 
 and 
, belonging to convex compact subsets 
 and 
, respectively. Additionally, define the first-order jet bundle for 
 and 
 as 
.
The robust counterpart for the above-defined robust multi-dimensional vector variational control problem 
 is presented as follows:
We define the feasible solutions set of 
, also known as the 
robust feasible solution set for the problem 
, as follows:
Now, for the robust multi-dimensional vector variational control problem , we develop the concept of the robust weakly efficient solution. It is utilized to establish the robust efficiency conditions for the problem .
Definition 1. A point  is considered to be the robust weakly efficient solution for the given multi-dimensional vector variational problem  iffor all feasible points  in Z.  Definition 2. A point  is considered to be the robust efficient solution for the given multi-dimensional vector variational problem  iffor all feasible points  in Z.  Subsequently, the following robust multi-dimensional 
uncertain vector fractional-control problem  is developed as:
	  where it is assumed that 
, 
 and 
 represent the uncertainty parameters of the convex compact subsets 
, and 
, respectively.
The robust counterpart for the above-defined robust multi-dimensional vector fractional variational control problem 
 is defined as follows:
Definition 3. A point  is considered to be the robust weakly efficient solution for the given multi-dimensional vector fractional variational problem  iffor all feasible points  in Z.  Definition 4. A point  is considered to be the robust efficient solution for the given multi-dimensional vector fractional variational problem  iffor all feasible points  in Z.  Now, on the line of Jagannathan [
15], and following Mititelu and Treanţă [
5], we present a 
non-fractional uncertain scalar control problem , associated with 
, as follows:
      where 
 is a real positive scalar (see Treanţă [
5]).
The robust counterpart to 
 is given by
      
Definition 5. A point  is considered to be the robust weak optimal solution for the given multi-dimensional non-fractional-control problem  iffor all feasible points  in .  Definition 6. A point  is considered to be the robust optimal solution in the robust multi-dimensional non-fractional-control problem  iffor all feasible points  in .  Remark 1. The robust (weak) efficient/optimal solutions to  and  are also (weak) efficient/optimal solutions to  and , respectively.
   3. Robust Necessary Efficiency Conditions in Scalar, Vector, and Vector Fractional Variational Problems
We start with the formulation of a multi-dimensional robust 
uncertain scalar control problem  as follows:
The robust counterpart for the above robust multi-dimensional scalar variational problem 
 is developed as follows:
Definition 7. A point  is considered to be the robust weak optimal solution for the given robust multi-dimensional scalar variational problem  iffor all feasible points  in .  Definition 8. A point  is considered to be the robust optimal solution for the given robust multi-dimensional scalar variational problem  iffor all feasible points  in .  For a given feasible solution 
, the following result develops the robust necessary optimality conditions for the given robust scalar variational problem 
 (see, Additionally, Treanţă [
16]):
Theorem 1 (Robust necessary efficiency conditions for 
)
. Consider a robust weak optimal solution  for the given robust scalar variational problem  and . In this case,  exists as the scalar,  as the piecewise smooth functions, and ,  as the parameters of uncertainty satisfyingfor all , except at discontinuities. Proof.  We start the proof by defining the variations in parameters 
 and 
, as 
 and 
, respectively, (considering the parameters 
 as “small” as required in the variational arguments). Next, the cost functional and the constraints, which are dependent on 
, are transformed as below
        
        and
        
The following optimal control problem has a solution 
, as a consequence of 
 being a robust weak optimal solution for 
        subject to
        
As a result, the following Fritz John conditions are satisfied with the existence of 
 as scalar, 
 as the piecewise smooth functions, and 
 and 
 as the uncertain parameters such that
        
        where the gradient of 
 at 
 is represented as 
. We can reinterpret the first equation in 
 as below:
        
        or, equivalently, it can be written as
        
        by using the divergence formula, integration by parts, and the boundary conditions.
Now, employing the fundamental result of the calculus of variations, it follows that
        
        or, equivalently,
        
The last two conditions in relation 
,
        
        gives
        
This completes the proof.    □
 We next move on to the following multi-dimensional vector variational problem
      
		where
      
Theorem 2 (Robust necessary efficiency conditions for 
)
. Consider a robust weakly efficient solution  for the given robust multi-dimensional vector variational problem  and . Then,  exist as the scalars,  as the piecewise smooth functions, and ,  as the parameters of uncertainty satisfying the following conditions:for all , except at discontinuities. Proof.  Consider 
 to be the robust weakly efficient solution for the uncertain multi-dimensional vector variational problem 
. Consequently, the inequality 
 does not hold true. Moreover, for the point 
, define the neighborhood 
 in 
Z where 
 such that 
. In view of this, 
 is a robust weak optimal solution for the following robust multi-dimensional scalar variational problem:
        
Now, applying Theorem 1, the following conditions are satisfied with the existence of 
, the piecewise smooth functions 
, and the uncertainty parameters 
, 
 satisfying the following conditions (taking no summation over 
):
        
        for all 
, except at discontinuities.
Implementing the required notations as follows: , with  when , and  when , , , the proof is complete.    □
 The robust multi-dimensional vector fractional variational problem 
 is now considered as follows:
		where it is assumed that 
.
Equivalently, we have 
 (on the line of Jagannathan [
15])
      
      where 
 is a real positive scalar.
Theorem 3 (Robust necessary efficiency conditions for 
)
. Consider a robust weakly efficient solution  for the given robust vector fractional variational problem . Then,  exist as the scalars,  as the piecewise smooth functions, and ,  as the parameters of uncertainty satisfying the following conditions:for all , except at discontinuities. Proof.  Assuming  to be the robust weakly efficient solution for the robust multi-dimensional vector fractional variational problem . In addition, by taking into account  instead of , the proof follows on the same lines of Theorem 1.    □
 Corollary 1 (Robust necessary efficiency conditions for 
)
. Consider a robust weakly efficient solution  for the given robust vector fractional variational problem . Then,  exist as the scalars,  and  as the piecewise smooth functions, and  and  as the parameters of uncertainty such thatfor all , except at discontinuities. Proof.  By denoting
        
        and redefining the functions
        
        which completes the proof.    □
   4. Robust Sufficient Efficiency Conditions in Scalar, Vector and Vector Fractional Variational Problems
For the considered robust multi-dimensional scalar, vector and vector fractional variational problems, the robust sufficient efficiency conditions are derived in this section. We begin by stating the sufficient conditions of efficiency for the aforementioned robust scalar control problem . More specifically, we prove that if the involved functionals are convex, any robust feasible solution in  that satisfies the conditions in Theorem 3, is a robust weak optimal solution to the problem under consideration.
Definition 9. A functional  is said to be convex at , ifholds for all   Theorem 4 (Robust sufficient efficiency conditions for ). Consider a robust feasible solution  for the robust scalar variational problem  ensuring that the robust necessary optimality conditions stated in Theorem 1 are satisfied. Further, assume that  and  are convex at . Then,  is a robust weak optimal solution for the robust scalar variational problem .
 Proof.  Suppose on the contradiction that 
 is not a robust weak optimal solution for the robust scalar variational control problem 
. Consequently, 
 exists satisfying
        
By assumption, 
 we obtain
        
Since the necessary efficiency conditions (1)–(4) are satisfied at 
. Additionally, multiplying the Equation (
1) by 
 and Equation (
2) by 
 and integrating, we obtain,
        
        by utilizing the divergence formula, using integration by parts, and using the boundary conditions in the problem under consideration.
In contrast, as 
 is convex at 
, we have
        
        which, along with the inequality (6), gives
        
Once again, applying the fact that 
 is convex at 
, the following results:
        
Now, by the robust feasibility of 
 in 
 in the above inequality and condition (3), provide
        
Further, by considering that 
 is convex at 
 and the robust feasibility of 
 in 
, we obtain
        
On adding the inequalities (8)–(10), we have
        
        which is a contradiction to the Equation (
7) and, therefore, the proof is completed.    □
 Next, we demonstrate sufficient efficiency conditions for the robust multi-dimensional vector variational problem .
Theorem 5 (Robust sufficient efficiency conditions for ). Consider a robust feasible solution  for the robust vector variational problem , and  exists as the scalars,  as the piecewise smooth functions, and ,  as the parameters of uncertainty, fulfilling the conditions of Theorem 2. Further, assume that each functional  for  and  are convex at . Then,  is a robust weakly efficient solution for the robust vector variational problem .
 Proof.  The proof can be obtained on the same lines of Theorem 4 by replacing  to , where  as in Theorem 2, and , .    □
 Next, we shall provide robust sufficient conditions of efficiency in the multi-dimensional vector fractional variational problem  in the following result.
Theorem 6 (Robust sufficient efficiency conditions for ). Consider a robust feasible solution  for the vector fractional variational problem . Then,  exist as the scalars,  as the piecewise smooth functions, and ,  as the parameters of uncertainty, satisfying the conditions formulated in Theorem 3. Further, suppose that each involved functionals  for  and  are convex at . Then,  is a robust weakly efficient solution for the robust multi-dimensional vector fractional-control problem .
 Proof.  By defining the functions
        
        instead of 
. The proof follows in the similar way as in Theorem 5.   □
 Corollary 2 (Robust sufficient efficiency conditions for 
)
. Consider a robust feasible solution  for the variational problem . Then,  exists as the scalar and  as the piecewise smooth functions, and ,  exist as the parameters of uncertainty, satisfying the conditions formulated in Corollary 1. Further, suppose that each functionalfor  and  are convex at . Then,  is a robust weakly efficient solution for the robust variational problem . Proof.  The proof follows from Theorem 5 by replacing the functions
        
        with
        
□
   5. Illustrative Application
In this section, we present an application of the derived theoretical results. In this direction, we consider the following multi-dimensional multiple-objective optimization problem in the face of data uncertainty:
      where 
 and 
.
The associated robust counterpart for the multi-dimensional multiple-objective optimization problem (P) is defined as:
      where 
 Clearly 
 is a robust feasible solution set to (P). Additionally, we assume that the state function is an affine one.
Let 
 be a robust feasible solution to the problem (P). The robust necessary efficiency conditions at 
 with the multipliers 
, 
=
, and the uncertain parameters 
 are as follows:
      where relation (16) is satisfied if either 
 or 
, for all 
. Let 
, then 
 implies that 
. Clearly, the boundary conditions (14) are failing at 
. Consequently, 
.
One can easily verifies that the robust necessary efficiency conditions (15)–(17) are satisfied at  at , i.e.,  with the Lagrange multipliers  and the uncertain parameters . Further, it can also be easily verified that the involved functionals are convex at . Hence, all of the conditions of the above theoretical results are satisfied, which ensure that  is also a robust weakly efficient solution to the problem (P).
  6. Conclusions
In this study, we have introduced a new class of multi-dimensional variational control problems by considering data uncertainty in both objective functional and constraints. We have developed and established the robust necessary efficiency conditions for the scalar , vector , and vector fractional  control problems based on the concepts of robust weakly efficient solution. Further, for a robust feasible solution to be a robust weakly efficient solution, the associated robust sufficient conditions need to have been obtained by using the assumption of convexity for the involved integrals.
   
  
    Author Contributions
Conceptualization, S.T. and R.; methodology, R.; software, R. and D.A.; validation, S.T., D.A. and G.S.; formal analysis, S.T. and R.; investigation, S.T. and R.; resources, S.T., D.A. and G.S.; data curation, S.T., R., D.A. and G.S.; writing—original draft preparation, S.T., R., D.A. and G.S.; writing—review and editing, S.T., R., D.A. and G.S.; visualization, S.T., R., D.A. and G.S.; supervision, S.T., D.A. and G.S.; project administration, S.T., R., D.A. and G.S.; funding acquisition, S.T., R., D.A. and G.S. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.
Funding
The first author is thankful to Indira Gandhi Delhi Technical University for Women, Delhi (India) for providing financial support during this research work.
Institutional Review Board Statement
Not applicable.
Informed Consent Statement
Not applicable.
Data Availability Statement
Not applicable.
Conflicts of Interest
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
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