This paper concerns general (nonconvex) nonlinear optimization when first and second derivatives of the objective and constraint functions are available. The proposed method is based on finding an approximate solution of a sequence of unconstrained subproblems parameterized by a scalar parameter. The objective function of each unconstrained subproblem is an augmented penalty-barrier function that involves … Read more
We propose and analyze a primal-dual interior point method of the “feasible” type, with the additional property that the objective function decreases at each iteration. A distinctive feature of the method is the use of different barrier parameter values for each constraint, with the purpose of better steering the constructed sequence away from non-KKT stationary … Read more
Transition to superlinear local convergence is shown for a modified version of the trust-region filter-SQP method for nonlinear programming introduced by Fletcher, Leyffer, and Toint [8]. Hereby, the original trust-region SQP-steps can be used without an additional second order correction. The main modification consists in using the Lagrangian function value instead of the objective function … Read more
We propose the elastic string algorithm for computing mountain passes in finite-dimensional problems. We analyze the convergence properties and numerical performance of this algorithm for benchmark problems in chemistry and discretizations of infinite-dimensional variational problems. We show that any limit point of the elastic string algorithm is a path that crosses a critical point at … Read more
Quasi-Newton methods in conjunction with the piecewise sequential quadratic programming are investigated for solving mathematical programming with equilibrium constraints, in particular for problems with complementarity constraints. Local convergence as well as superlinear convergence of these quasi-Newton methods can be established under suitable assumptions. In particular, several well-known quasi-Newton methods such as BFGS and DFP are … Read more
We adapt the convergence analysis of smoothing (Fukushima and Pang) and regularization (Scholtes) methods to a penalty framework for mathematical programs with complementarity constraints (MPCCs), and show that the penalty framework shares similar convergence properties to these methods. Moreover, we give sufficient conditions for a sequence generated by the penalty framework to be attracted to … Read more
This paper describes numerical experience with solving MPECs as NLPs on a large collection of test problems. The key idea is to use off-the-shelf NLP solvers to tackle large instances of MPECs. It is shown that SQP methods are very well suited to solving MPECs and at present outperform Interior Point solvers both in terms … Read more
An algorithm for smooth nonlinear constrained optimization problems is described, in which a sequence of feasible iterates is generated by solving a trust-region sequential quadratic programming (SQP) subproblem at each iteration, and perturbing the resulting step to retain feasibility of each iterate. By retaining feasibility, the algorithm avoids several complications of other trust-region SQP approaches: … Read more
Model predictive control requires the solution of a sequence of continuous optimization problems that are nonlinear if a nonlinear model is used for the plant. We describe briefly a trust-region feasibility-perturbed sequential quadratic programming algorithm (developed in a companion report), then discuss its adaptation to the problems arising in nonlinear model predictive control. Computational experience … Read more
Semidefinite Programming (SDP) provides strong bounds for many NP-hard combinatorial problems. Arguably the most popular/efficient search direction for solving SDPs using a primal-dual interior point (p-d i-p) framework is the {\em HKM direction}. This direction is a Newton direction found from the linearization of a symmetrized version of the optimality conditions. For many of the … Read more