  We study optical solitons in chirped periodic optical lattices whose
amplitude or frequency changes in the transverse direction. We discover that
soliton propagation in such lattices can be accompanied by the progressive
self-bending of the soliton trajectory, and we show that the soliton bending
rate and output position can be controlled by varying the lattice depth, as
well as the chirp amplitude and frequency modulation rate. This effect has
potential applications for controllable soliton steering and routing.
