We consider the information relaxation approach for calculating performance bounds for stochastic dynamic programs (DPs), following Brown, Smith, and Sun (2010). This approach generates performance bounds by solving problems with relaxed nonanticipativity constraints and a penalty that punishes violations of these nonanticipativity constraints. In this paper, we study DPs that have a convex structure and … Read more
Routing problems stand among the hardest combinatorial problems to find high quality bounds or to prove new optimal solutions. In this thesis, we tackle the Capacitated Arc Routing Problem (CARP) and the Generalized Vehicle Routing Problem (GVRP). For both problems, there are a set of customers spread over a given graph, where each customer has … Read more
We present a framework for obtaining Fully Polynomial Time Approximation Schemes (FPTASs) for stochastic univariate dynamic programs with either convex or monotone single-period cost functions. This framework is developed through the establishment of two sets of computational rules, namely the Calculus of K-approximation Functions and the Calculus of K-approximation Sets. Using our framework, we provide … Read more
We propose a dynamic programming algorithm for projection onto wavelet tree structures. In contrast to other recently proposed algorithms which only give approximate tree projections for a given sparsity, our algorithm is guaranteed to calculate the projection exactly. We also prove that our algorithm has O(Nk) complexity, where N is the signal dimension and k … Read more
We study the lot-sizing problem with piecewise concave production costs and concave holding costs. This problem is a generalization of the lot-sizing problem with quantity discounts, minimum order quantities, capacities, overloading, subcontracting or a combination of these. We develop a dynamic programming (DP) algorithm to solve this problem and answer an open question in the … Read more
We consider two linear relaxations of the asymmetric traveling salesman problem (TSP), the Held-Karp relaxation of the TSP’s arc-based formulation, and a particular approximate linear programming (ALP) relaxation obtained by restricting the dual of the TSP’s shortest path formulation. We show that the two formulations produce equal lower bounds for the TSP’s optimal cost regardless … Read more
We use Markov risk measures to formulate a risk-averse version of the undiscounted total cost problem for a transient controlled Markov process. We derive risk-averse dynamic programming equations and we show that a randomized policy may be strictly better than deterministic policies, when risk measures are employed. We illustrate the results on an optimal stopping … Read more
We consider an uncertain variant of the knapsack problem in which the weight of the items is not exactly known in advance, but belongs to a given interval, and an upper bound is imposed on the number of items whose weight di ffers from the expected one. For this problem, we provide a dynamic programming algorithm … Read more
We propose a dynamic traveling salesman problem (TSP) with stochastic arc costs motivated by applications, such as dynamic vehicle routing, in which a decision’s cost is known only probabilistically beforehand but is revealed dynamically before the decision is executed. We formulate the problem as a dynamic program (DP) and compare it to static counterparts to … Read more
In the execution cost problem, an investor wants to minimize the total expected cost and risk in the execution of a portfolio of risky assets to achieve desired positions. A major source of the execution cost comes from price impacts of both the investor’s own trades and other concurrent institutional trades. Indeed price impact of … Read more