  It is well-known that proper scaling can increase the efficiency of
computational problems. In this paper we define and show that a balancing
technique can substantially improve the computational efficiency of optimal
control algorithms. We also show that non-canonical scaling and balancing
procedures may be used quite effectively to reduce the computational difficulty
of some hard problems. These results have been used successfully for several
flight and field operations at NASA and DoD. A surprising aspect of our
analysis shows that it may be inadvisable to use auto-scaling procedures
employed in some software packages. The new results are agnostic to the
specifics of the computational method; hence, they can be used to enhance the
utility of any existing algorithm or software.
