Robust optimization criteria: state-of-the-art and new issues

Uncertain parameters appear in many optimization problems raised by real-world applications. To handle such problems, several approaches to model uncertainty are available, such as stochastic programming and robust optimization. This study is focused on robust optimization, in particular, the criteria to select and determine a robust solution. We provide an overview on robust optimization criteria … Read more

Robust newsvendor problem with autoregressive demand

This paper explores the classic single-item newsvendor problem under a novel setting which combines temporal dependence and tractable robust optimization. First, the demand is modeled as a time series which follows an autoregressive process AR(p), p>= 1. Second, a robust approach to maximize the worst-case revenue is proposed: a robust distribution-free autoregressive forecasting method, which … Read more

Robust Growth-Optimal Portfolios

The growth-optimal portfolio is designed to have maximum expected log-return over the next rebalancing period. Thus, it can be computed with relative ease by solving a static optimization problem. The growth-optimal portfolio has sparked fascination among finance professionals and researchers because it can be shown to outperform any other portfolio with probability 1 in the … Read more

Computationally tractable counterparts of distributionally robust constraints on risk measures

In optimization problems appearing in fields such as economics, finance, or engineering, it is often important that a risk measure of a decision-dependent random variable stays below a prescribed level. At the same time, the underlying probability distribution determining the risk measure’s value is typically known only up to a certain degree and the constraint … Read more

Distributionally Robust Discrete Optimization with Entropic Value-at-Risk

We study the discrete optimization problem under the distributionally robust framework. We optimize the Entropic Value-at-Risk, which is a coherent risk measure and is also known as Bernstein approximation for the chance constraint. We propose an efficient approximation algorithm to resolve the problem via solving a sequence of nominal problems. The computational results show that … Read more

Reformulations versus cutting planes for robust optimization: A computational study

Robust optimization (RO) is a tractable method to address uncertainty in optimization problems where uncertain parameters are modeled as belonging to uncertainty sets that are commonly polyhedral or ellipsoidal. The two most frequently described methods in the literature for solving RO problems are reformulation to a deterministic optimization problem or an iterative cutting-plane method. There … Read more

K-Adaptability in Two-Stage Robust Binary Programming

Over the last two decades, robust optimization has emerged as a computationally attractive approach to formulate and solve single-stage decision problems affected by uncertainty. More recently, robust optimization has been successfully applied to multi-stage problems with continuous recourse. This paper takes a step towards extending the robust optimization methodology to problems with integer recourse, which … Read more

Robust Stable Payoff Distribution in Stochastic Cooperative Games

Cooperative games with transferable utilities belong to a branch of game theory where groups of players can enter into binding agreements and form coalitions in order to jointly achieve some objectives. In a cooperative setting, one of the most important questions to address is how to establish a payoff distribution among the players in such … Read more

The Multi-Band Robust Knapsack Problem — A Dynamic Programming Approach —

In this paper, we consider the multi-band robust knapsack problem which generalizes the Γ-robust knapsack problem by subdividing the single deviation band into several smaller bands. We state a compact ILP formulation and develop two dynamic programming algorithms based on the presented model where the first has a complexity linear in the number of items … Read more

Polyhedral Approximation of Ellipsoidal Uncertainty Sets via Extended Formulations – a computational case study –

Robust optimization is an important technique to immunize optimization problems against data uncertainty. In the case of a linear program and an ellipsoidal uncertainty set, the robust counterpart turns into a second-order cone program. In this work, we investigate the efficiency of linearizing the second-order cone constraints of the latter. This is done using the … Read more