Optimal control of a discrete-time stochastic system with a probabilistic criterion and a non-fixed terminal time

This paper considers an optimal control problem for a discrete-time stochastic system with the probability of first reaching the boundaries of a given domain as the optimality criterion. Dynamic programming-based sufficient conditions of optimality are formulated and proved. The isobells of levels 1 and 0 of the Bellman function are used for obtaining two-sided estimates of the right-hand side of the dynamic programming equation, two-sided estimates of the Bellman function, and two-sided estimates of the optimal-value function of the probabilistic criterion. A suboptimal control design method is proposed. The conditions of equivalence to an optimal control problem with a probabilistic terminal criterion are established. An illustrative example is given.