Related papers: Optimal bounds and extremal trajectories for time …
We introduce several generalizations of classical computer science problems obtained by replacing simpler objective functions with general submodular functions. The new problems include submodular load balancing, which generalizes load…
Consider a general nonlinear optimal control problem in finite dimension, with constant state and/or control delays. By the Pontryagin Maximum Principle, any optimal trajectory is the projection of a Pontryagin extremal. We establish that,…
The determination of the time averages of continuous functions, or discrete time sequences is important for various problems in physics and engineering, and the generalized final-value theorems of the Laplace and z-transforms, relevant to…
We consider the problem of minimizing a sum of non-convex functions over a compact domain, subject to linear inequality and equality constraints. Approximate solutions can be found by solving a convexified version of the problem, in which…
We introduce functions for relative maximization in a general context: the beta and alpha applications. After a systematic study concerning regularities, we investigate how to approximate certain values of these functions using periodic…
A fertile area of recent research has demonstrated concrete polynomial time lower bounds for solving natural hard problems on restricted computational models. Among these problems are Satisfiability, Vertex Cover, Hamilton Path, Mod6-SAT,…
We obtain approximation results for general positive linear operators satisfying mild conditions, when acting on discontinuous functions and absolutely continuous functions having discontinuous derivatives. The upper bounds, given in terms…
We consider optimal control problems for partial differential equations where the controls take binary values but vary over the time horizon, they can thus be seen as dynamic switches. The switching patterns may be subject to combinatorial…
We establish a number of new sufficient conditions for the existence of global (defined on the entire time axis) solutions of nonlinear nonautonomous systems by means of the Wazewski topological principle. The systems under consideration…
We study global optimization of non-convex functions through optimal control theory. Our main result establishes that (quasi-)optimal trajectories of a discounted control problem converge globally and practically asymptotically to the set…
We study the problem of optimizing nonlinear objective functions over bipartite matchings. While the problem is generally intractable, we provide several efficient algorithms for it, including a deterministic algorithm for maximizing convex…
In this article, we discuss two algorithms tailored to discrete-time deterministic finite-horizon nonlinear optimal control problems or so-called deterministic trajectory optimization problems. Both algorithms can be derived from an…
Motion planning for manipulators under task space constraints is difficult as it constrains the joint configurations to always lie on an implicitly defined manifold. It is possible to view task constrained motion planning as an optimization…
Submodular set-functions have many applications in combinatorial optimization, as they can be minimized and approximately maximized in polynomial time. A key element in many of the algorithms and analyses is the possibility of extending the…
We propose a general method for optimization with semi-infinite constraints that involve a linear combination of functions, focusing on the case of the exponential function. Each function is lower and upper bounded on sub-intervals by…
We propose an accelerated meta-algorithm, which allows to obtain accelerated methods for convex unconstrained minimization in different settings. As an application of the general scheme we propose nearly optimal methods for minimizing…
Majorization-minimization algorithms consist of successively minimizing a sequence of upper bounds of the objective function. These upper bounds are tight at the current estimate, and each iteration monotonically drives the objective…
We provide tight upper and lower bounds on the complexity of minimizing the average of $m$ convex functions using gradient and prox oracles of the component functions. We show a significant gap between the complexity of deterministic vs…
This article treats both discrete time and continuous time stopping problems for general Markov processes on the real line with general linear costs. Using an auxiliary function of maximum representation type, conditions are given to…
The minimization of energy-like cost functionals is addressed in the context of optimal control problems. For a general class of dynamical systems, with possibly unstable and nonlinear free dynamics, it is shown that a sequence of solutions…