TITLE: How do I approach Optimal Control?
QUESTION [16 upvotes]: Other than learning basic calculus, I don't really have an advanced background. I was curious to learn about Optimal Control (the theory that involves, bang-bang, Potryagin's Maximum Principle etc.) but any article that I start off with, mentions the following: "Consider a control system of the form..." and then goes on to defining partial differential equations. In short, I am lost. 
Can someone suggest me a path I should take to learn more about Optimal Control from the very basics?

REPLY [2 votes]: If you have a background in differential geometry, you will probably like the two books of Jurdjevic, Geometric Control Theory, and Optimal Control and Geometry: Integrable Systems, both from Cambridge Univesity Press.