Application of the Moment-SOS Approach to Global Optimization of the OPF Problem

Finding a global solution to the optimal power flow (OPF) problem is difficult due to its nonconvexity. A convex relaxation in the form of semidefinite programming (SDP) has attracted much attention lately as it yields a global solution in several practical cases. However, it does not in all cases, and such cases have been documented … Read more

Efficient upper and lower bounds for global mixed-integer optimal control

We present a control problem for an electrical vehicle. Its motor can be operated in two discrete modes, leading either to acceleration and energy consumption, or to a recharging of the battery. Mathematically, this leads to a mixed-integer optimal control problem (MIOCP) with a discrete feasible set for the controls taking into account the electrical … Read more

Mathematical Programming: Turing completeness and applications to software analysis

Mathematical Programming is Turing complete, and can be used as a general-purpose declarative language. We present a new constructive proof of this fact, and showcase its usefulness by discussing an application to finding the hardest input of any given program running on a Minsky Register Machine. We also discuss an application of Mathematical Programming to … Read more

Convex Quadratic Relaxations for Mixed-Integer Nonlinear Programs in Power Systems

This paper presents a set of new convex quadratic relaxations for nonlinear and mixed-integer nonlinear programs arising in power systems. The considered models are motivated by hybrid discrete/continuous applications where existing approximations do not provide optimality guarantees. The new relaxations offer computational efficiency along with minimal optimality gaps, providing an interesting alternative to state-of-the-art semi-definite … Read more

Global Optimization of Nonlinear Network Design

A novel approach for obtaining globally optimal solutions to design of networks with nonlinear resistances and potential driven flows is proposed. The approach is applicable to networks where the potential loss on an edge in the network is governed by a convex and strictly monotonically increasing function of flow rate. We introduce a relaxation of … Read more

Numerical Optimization of Eigenvalues of Hermitian Matrix Functions

The eigenvalues of a Hermitian matrix function that depends on one parameter analytically can be ordered so that each eigenvalue is an analytic function of the parameter. Ordering these analytic eigenvalues from the largest to the smallest yields continuous and piece-wise analytic functions. For multi-variate Hermitian matrix functions that depend on $d$ parameters analytically, the … Read more

A Fast Algorithm for Constructing Efficient Event-Related fMRI Designs

We propose a novel, ecient approach for obtaining high-quality experimental designs for event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (ER-fMRI). Our approach combines a greedy hillclimbing algorithm and a cyclic permutation method. When searching for optimal ER-fMRI designs, the proposed approach focuses only on a promising restricted class of designs with equal frequency of occurrence across stimulus … Read more

Squeeze-and-Breathe Evolutionary Monte Carlo Optimisation with Local Search Acceleration and its application to parameter fitting

Estimating parameters from data is a key stage of the modelling process, particularly in biological systems where many parameters need to be estimated from sparse and noisy data sets. Over the years, a variety of heuristics have been proposed to solve this complex optimisation problem, with good results in some cases yet with limitations in … Read more

Global optimization of pipe networks by the interval analysis approach: the Belgium network case

We show that global optimization techniques, based on interval analysis and constraint propagation, succeed in solving the classical problem of optimization of the Belgium gas network. CitationPublished as Inria Research report RR-7796, November 2011.ArticleDownload View PDF

Approximate spectral factorization for design of efficient sub-filter sequences

A well-known approach to the design of computationally efficient filters is to use spectral factorization, i.e. a decomposition of a filter into a sequence of sub-filters. Due to the sparsity of the sub-filters, the typical processing speedup factor is within the range 1-10 in 2D, and for 3D it achieves 10-100. The design of such … Read more