A minimum energy control problem for fractional positive continuous-time linear systems with bounded inputs is formulated and solved. Sufficient conditions for the existence of a solution to the problem are established. A procedure for solving the problem is proposed and illustrated with a numerical example.

We prove the existence of at least three solutions to the following fractional boundary value problem: ⎧ $-d/dt(1/2_0{D}_t^{-\sigma }\left(u^{\text{'}}\left(t\right)\right)+1/2_t{D}_T^{-\sigma }\left(u^{\text{'}}\left(t\right)\right))-\lambda \beta \left(t\right)f\left(u\left(t\right)\right)-\mu \gamma \left(t\right)g\left(u\left(t\right)\right)=0$, a.e. t ∈ [0, T], ⎨ ⎩ u (0) = u (T) = 0, where ${}_0{D}_t^{-\sigma }$ and ${}_t{D}_T^{-\sigma }$ are the left and right Riemann-Liouville fractional integrals of order 0 ≤ σ < 1 respectively. The approach is based on a recent three critical points theorem of Ricceri [B. Ricceri, A further refinement of a three critical points theorem, Nonlinear Anal. 74 (2011), 7446-7454].