Exact Approaches for the Knapsack Problem with Setups

We consider a generalization of the knapsack problem in which items are partitioned into classes, each characterized by a fixed cost and capacity. We study three alternative Integer Linear Programming formulations. For each formulation, we design an efficient algorithm to compute the linear programming relaxation (one of which is based on Column Generation techniques). We … Read more

Solving rank-constrained semidefinite programs in exact arithmetic

We consider the problem of minimizing a linear function over an affine section of the cone of positive semidefinite matrices, with the additional constraint that the feasible matrix has prescribed rank. When the rank constraint is active, this is a non-convex optimization problem, otherwise it is a semidefinite program. Both find numerous applications especially in … Read more

The Quest for Optimal Solutions for the Art Gallery Problem: a Practical Iterative Algorithm

The general Art Gallery Problem (AGP) consists in finding the minimum number of guards sufficient to ensure the visibility coverage of an art gallery represented by a polygon. The AGP is a well known NP-hard problem and, for this reason, all algorithms proposed so far to solve it are unable to guarantee optimality except in … Read more