We consider the global minimization of a bound-constrained function with a so-called funnel structure. We develop a two-phase procedure that uses sampling, local optimization, and Gaussian smoothing to construct a smooth model of the underlying funnel. The procedure is embedded in a trust-region framework that avoids the pitfalls of a fixed sampling radius. We present a numerical comparison to three popular methods and show that the new algorithm is robust and uses up to 20 times fewer local minimizations steps.
Citation
Mathematics and Computer Science Division Preprint ANL/MCS-P1190-0804, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, IL, August 2004