NLPQLP: A New Fortran Implementation of a Sequential Quadratic Programming Algorithm

The Fortran subroutine NLPQLP solves smooth nonlinear programming problems and is an extension of the code NLPQL. The new version is specifically tuned to run under distributed systems. A new input parameter l is introduced for the number of parallel machines, that is the number of function calls to be executed simultaneously. In case of … Read more

A truncated SQP algorithm for solving nonconvex equality constrained optimization problems

An algorithm for solving equality constrained optimization problems is proposed. It can deal with nonconvex functions and uses a truncated conjugate algorithm for detecting nonconvexity. The algorithm ensures convergence from remote starting point by using line-search. Numerical experiments are reported, comparing the approach with the one implemented in the trust region codes ETR and Knitro. … Read more

An Analysis of the EM Algorithm andEntropy-Like Proximal Point Methods

The EM algorithm is a popular method for maximum likelihood estimation from incomplete data. This method may be viewed as a proximal point method for maximizing the log-likelhood function using an integral form of the Kullback-Leibler distance function. Motivated by this interpretation, we consider a proximal point method using an integral form of entropy-like distance … Read more

A Comparative Study of Large-Scale Nonlinear Optimization Algorithms

In recent years, much work has been done on implementing a variety of algorithms in nonlinear programming software. In this paper, we analyze the performance of several state-of-the-art optimization codes on large-scale nonlinear optimization problems. Extensive numerical results are presented on different classes of problems, and features of each code that make it efficient or … Read more

Smoothing Method of Multipliers for Sum-Max Problems

We study nonsmooth unconstrained optimization problem, which includes sum of pairwise maxima of smooth functions. Minimum $l_1$-norm approximation is a particular case of this problem. Combining ideas Lagrange multipliers with smooth approximation of max-type function, we obtain a new kind of nonquadratic augmented Lagrangian. Our approach does not require artificial variables, and preserves sparse structure … Read more

New Versions of Interior Point Methods Applied to the Optimal Power Flow Problem

Interior Point methods for Nonlinear Programming have been extensively used to solve the Optimal Power Flow problem. These optimization algorithms require the solution of a set of nonlinear equations to obtain the optimal solution of the power network equations. During the iterative process to solve these equations, the search for the optimum is based on … Read more

A globally convergent filter method for nonlinear programming

In this paper we present a filter algorithm for nonlinear programming and prove its global convergence to stationary points. Each iteration is composed of a restoration phase, which reduces a measure of infeasibility, and an optimality phase, which reduces the objective function in a tangential approximation of the feasible set. These two phases are totally … Read more

Object-Oriented Software for Quadratic Programming

We describe the object-oriented software package OOQP for solving convex quadratic programming problems (QP). The primal-dual interior point algorithms supplied by OOQP are implemented in a way that is largely independent of the problem structure. Users may exploit problem structure by supplying linear algebra, problem data, and variable classes that are customized to their particular … Read more

New Classes of Globally Convexized Filled Functions for Global Optimization

We propose new classes of globally convexized filled functions. Unlike the globally convexized filled functions previously proposed in literature, the ones proposed in this paper are continuously differentiable and, under suitable assumptions, their unconstrained minimization allows to escape from any local minima of the original objective function. Moreover we show that the properties of the … Read more