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Related papers: Optimization with Zeroth-Order Oracles in Formatio…

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In this work, we focus on the study of stochastic zeroth-order (ZO) optimization which does not require first-order gradient information and uses only function evaluations. The problem of ZO optimization has emerged in many recent machine…

Machine Learning · Statistics 2020-12-22 Pranay Sharma , Kaidi Xu , Sijia Liu , Pin-Yu Chen , Xue Lin , Pramod K. Varshney

We propose an algorithm for distributed optimization over time-varying communication networks. Our algorithm uses an optimized ratio between the number of rounds of communication and gradient evaluations to achieve fast convergence. The…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2020-01-08 Bryan Van Scoy , Laurent Lessard

Motivated by emerging applications in machine learning, we consider an optimization problem in a general form where the gradient of the objective function is available through a biased stochastic oracle. We assume a bias-control parameter…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2026-02-10 Yin Liu , Sam Davanloo Tajbakhsh

This paper investigates distributed zeroth-order optimization for smooth nonconvex problems, targeting the trade-off between convergence rate and sampling cost per zeroth-order gradient estimation in current algorithms that use either the…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2026-04-10 Huaiyi Mu , Yujie Tang , Jie Song , Zhongkui Li

This paper considers convex games involving multiple agents that aim to minimize their own cost functions using locally available information. A common assumption in the study of such games is that the agents are symmetric, meaning that…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2025-09-25 Zifan Wang , Xinlei Yi , Yi Shen , Michael M. Zavlanos , Karl H. Johansson

In this paper, a distributed optimization problem with general differentiable convex objective functions is studied for single-integrator and double-integrator multi-agent systems. Two distributed adaptive optimization algorithm is…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2017-03-28 Peng Lin , Wei Ren

Zeroth-order optimization, which does not use derivative information, is one of the significant research areas in the field of mathematical optimization and machine learning. Although various studies have explored zeroth-order algorithms,…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2024-07-16 Ryota Nozawa , Pierre-Louis Poirion , Akiko Takeda

This paper addresses the study of derivative-free smooth optimization problems, where the gradient information on the objective function is unavailable. Two novel general derivative-free methods are proposed and developed for minimizing…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2023-11-29 Pham Duy Khanh , Boris S. Mordukhovich , Dat Ba Tran

The complexity in large-scale optimization can lie in both handling the objective function and handling the constraint set. In this respect, stochastic Frank-Wolfe algorithms occupy a unique position as they alleviate both computational…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2021-02-16 Cyrille W. Combettes , Christoph Spiegel , Sebastian Pokutta

Zeroth-order (ZO) optimization enables memory-efficient training of neural networks by estimating gradients via forward passes only, eliminating the need for backpropagation. However, the stochastic nature of gradient estimation…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2026-03-24 Chen Zhang , Yuxin Cheng , Chenchen Ding , Shuqi Wang , Jingreng Lei , Runsheng Yu , Yik-Chung WU , Ngai Wong

We consider minimization problems with the well-known Polya-Lojasievich condition and Lipshitz-continuous gradient. Such problem occurs in different places in machine learning and related fields. Furthermore, we assume that a gradient is…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2023-12-12 Sergei M. Puchinin , Fedor S. Stonyakin

This paper deals with the black-box optimization problem. In this setup, we do not have access to the gradient of the objective function, therefore, we need to estimate it somehow. We propose a new type of approximation JAGUAR, that…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2024-12-03 Andrey Veprikov , Aleksandr Bogdanov , Vladislav Minashkin , Aleksandr Beznosikov

Frequently, the burgeoning field of black-box optimization encounters challenges due to a limited understanding of the mechanisms of the objective function. To address such problems, in this work we focus on the deterministic concept of…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2024-12-30 Aleksandr Lobanov , Alexander Gasnikov , Andrei Krasnov

In this work we address the problem of convex optimization in a multi-agent setting where the objective is to minimize the mean of local cost functions whose derivatives are not available (e.g. black-box models). Moreover agents can only…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2023-06-14 Alessio Maritan , Luca Schenato

In this paper, we investigate a distributed interval optimization problem which is modeled with optimizing a sum of convex interval-valued objective functions subject to global convex constraints, corresponding to agents over a time-varying…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2019-05-01 Yinghui Wang , Xianlin Zeng , Wenxiao Zhao , Yiguang Hong

For the task of moving a set of indistinguishable agents on a connected graph with unit edge distance to an arbitrary set of goal vertices, free of collisions, we propose a fast distance optimal control algorithm that guides the agents into…

Systems and Control · Computer Science 2015-03-20 Jingjin Yu , Steven M. LaValle

Distributed zeroth-order optimization is increasingly applied in heterogeneous scenarios where agents possess distinct data distributions and objectives. This heterogeneity poses fundamental challenges for convergence analysis, as existing…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2026-02-10 Haonan Wang , Xinlei Yi , Yiguang Hong , Minghui Liwang

We study the problem of zero-order optimization of a strongly convex function. The goal is to find the minimizer of the function by a sequential exploration of its values, under measurement noise. We study the impact of higher order…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2022-11-28 Arya Akhavan , Massimiliano Pontil , Alexandre B. Tsybakov

This paper studies a distributed multi-agent convex optimization problem. The system comprises multiple agents in this problem, each with a set of local data points and an associated local cost function. The agents are connected to a…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2021-08-20 Kushal Chakrabarti , Nirupam Gupta , Nikhil Chopra

Stochastic optimization problems with unknown decision-dependent distributions have attracted increasing attention in recent years due to its importance in applications. Since the gradient of the objective function is inaccessible as a…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2025-10-30 Yuya Hikima , Akiko Takeda