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Related papers: Sampling-Based Zero-Order Optimization Algorithms

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Coordinate descent methods have considerable impact in global optimization because global (or, at least, almost global) minimization is affordable for low-dimensional problems. Coordinate descent methods with high-order regularized models…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2023-04-28 V. S. Amaral , R. Andreani , E. G. Birgin , D. S. Marcondes , J. M. Martínez

This paper considers zeroth-order optimization for stochastic convex minimization problem. We propose a parameter-free stochastic zeroth-order method (POEM) by introducing a step-size scheme based on the distance over finite difference and…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2025-05-06 Kunjie Ren , Luo Luo

Two types of zeroth-order stochastic algorithms have recently been designed for nonconvex optimization respectively based on the first-order techniques SVRG and SARAH/SPIDER. This paper addresses several important issues that are still open…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2019-10-29 Kaiyi Ji , Zhe Wang , Yi Zhou , Yingbin Liang

The selection of the most appropriate algorithm to solve a given problem instance, known as algorithm selection, is driven by the potential to capitalize on the complementary performance of different algorithms across sets of problem…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2024-06-12 Gjorgjina Cenikj , Ana Nikolikj , Gašper Petelin , Niki van Stein , Carola Doerr , Tome Eftimov

In this paper we consider stochastic weakly convex composite problems, however without the existence of a stochastic subgradient oracle. We present a derivative free algorithm that uses a two point approximation for computing a gradient…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2020-02-20 V. Kungurtsev , F. Rinaldi

Sampling-based algorithms are widely used for motion planning in high-dimensional configuration spaces. However, due to low sampling efficiency, their performance often diminishes in complex configuration spaces with narrow corridors.…

Robotics · Computer Science 2025-07-22 Lu Huang , Lingxiao Meng , Jiankun Wang , Xingjian Jing

This paper considers non-smooth optimization problems where we seek to minimize the pointwise maximum of a continuously parameterized family of functions. Since the objective function is given as the solution to a maximization problem,…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2026-01-12 Dimitris Boskos , Jorge Cortés , Sonia Martínez

This letter studies distributed stochastic optimization over a peer-to-peer network when agents can query only zeroth-order function values. We propose ZOOM-PB, a coordinate-sampling distributed zeroth-order method equipped with a…

Systems and Control · Electrical Eng. & Systems 2026-05-28 Shengjun Zhang , Tingyi Liu , Heng Zhang , Dong Xie

We propose a new randomized optimization method for high-dimensional problems which can be seen as a generalization of coordinate descent to random subspaces. We show that an adaptive sampling strategy for the random subspace significantly…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2019-12-19 Jonathan Lacotte , Mert Pilanci , Marco Pavone

In this paper, we propose a sampling-based planning and optimal control method of nonlinear systems under non-differentiable constraints. Motivated by developing scalable planning algorithms, we consider the optimal motion plan to be a…

Systems and Control · Computer Science 2016-12-19 Jie Fu

This paper studies the stochastic distributed nonconvex optimization problem over a network of agents, where agents only access stochastic zeroth-order information about their local cost functions and collaboratively optimize the global…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2025-09-01 Haonan Wang , Xinlei Yi , Yiguang Hong

In this paper, we propose a general class of algorithms for optimizing an extensive variety of nonsmoothly penalized objective functions that satisfy certain regularity conditions. The proposed framework utilizes the…

Computation · Statistics 2011-01-24 Elizabeth D. Schifano , Robert L. Strawderman , Martin T. Wells

In this paper we provide a thorough, rigorous theoretical framework to assess optimality guarantees of sampling-based algorithms for drift control systems: systems that, loosely speaking, can not stop instantaneously due to momentum. We…

Robotics · Computer Science 2015-10-28 Edward Schmerling , Lucas Janson , Marco Pavone

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

Zeroth-order optimization is an important research topic in machine learning. In recent years, it has become a key tool in black-box adversarial attack to neural network based image classifiers. However, existing zeroth-order optimization…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2019-03-21 Haishan Ye , Zhichao Huang , Cong Fang , Chris Junchi Li , Tong Zhang

This paper provides a zeroth-order optimisation framework for non-smooth and possibly non-convex cost functions with matrix parameters that are real and symmetric. We provide complexity bounds on the number of iterations required to ensure…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2021-06-29 Alejandro I. Maass , Chris Manzie , Iman Shames , Hayato Nakada

In this paper, we study and analyze zeroth-order stochastic approximation algorithms for solving bilvel problems, when neither the upper/lower objective values, nor their unbiased gradient estimates are available. In particular, exploiting…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2024-04-02 Alireza Aghasi , Saeed Ghadimi

In this paper, we investigate the asymptotic properties of a particular class of state-dependent sweeping processes. While extensive research has been conducted on the existence and uniqueness of solutions for sweeping processes, there is a…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2023-11-23 Samir Adly , Monica G. Cojocaru , Ba Khiet Le

An Adagrad-inspired class of algorithms for smooth unconstrained optimization is presented in which the objective function is never evaluated and yet the gradient norms decrease at least as fast as $\calO(1/\sqrt{k+1})$ while second-order…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2023-02-16 S. Gratton , Ph. L. Toint

We consider minimization of a smooth nonconvex function with inexact oracle access to gradient and Hessian (without assuming access to the function value) to achieve approximate second-order optimality. A novel feature of our method is that…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2024-03-27 Shuyao Li , Stephen J. Wright