Multidisciplinary Design Optimization Approach to Integrated Space Mission Planning and Spacecraft Design

© AIAASpace mission planning and spacecraft design are tightly coupled and need to be considered together for optimal performance; however, this integrated optimization problem results in a large-scale mixed-integer nonlinear programming (MINLP) problem, which is challenging to solve. In response to this challenge, this paper proposes a new solution approach to this problem based on decomposition-based optimization via augmented Lagrangian coordination. The proposed approach leverages the unique structure of the problem that enables its decomposition into a set of coupled subproblems of different types: a mixed-integer quadratic programming (MIQP) subproblem for mission planning, and one or more nonlinear programming (NLP) subproblem(s) for spacecraft design. Because specialized MIQP or NLP solvers can be applied to each subproblem, the proposed approach can efficiently solve the otherwise intractable integrated MINLP problem. An automatic and effective method to find an initial solution for this iterative approach is also proposed so that the optimization can be performed without a user-defined initial guess. The demonstration case study shows that, compared to the state-of-the-art method, the proposed formulation converges substantially faster and the converged solution is at least the same or better given the same computational time limit.This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 1942559

On the Solution of Nonlinear Optimization Problems of High Dimension

A lot of real-life problems lead frequently to the solution of a complicated (large scale, multicriteria, unstable, nonsmooth etc.) nonlinear optimization problem. In order to cope with large scale problems and to develop many optimum plans a hiearchical approach to problem solving may be useful. The idea of hierarchical decision making is to reduce the overall complex problem into smaller and simpler approximate problems (subproblems) which may thereupon treated independently. One way to break a problem into smaller subproblems is the use of decomposition-coordination schemes. For finding proper values for coordination parameters in convex programming some rapidly convergent iterative methods are developed, their convergence properties and computational aspects are examined. Problems of their global implementation and polyalgorithmic approach are discussed as well

Short-term Hydro-thermal Coordination By Lagrangian Relaxation: A New Algorithm for the Solution of the Dual Problem

For decades, researchers have been studying the unit commitment problem in electrical power generation. To solve this complex, large scale and constrained optimization (primal) problem in a direct manner is not a feasible approach, which is where Lagrangian relaxation comes in as the answer. The dual Lagrangian problem translates a relaxed problem approach, that indirectly leads to solutions of the original (primal) problem. In the coordination problem, a decomposition takes place where the global solution is achieved by coordinating between the respective subproblems solutions. This dual problem is solved iteratively, and Lagrange multipliers are updated between each iteration using subgradient methods. To tackle, time-consuming tuning tasks  or user related experience, a new adaptative algorithm, is proposed to better adjust the step-size used to update Lagrange multipliers, i.e., avoid the need to pre-select  a set of parameters. A results comparison against a traditionally employed step-size update mechanism, showed that the adaptive algorithm manages to obtain improved performances in terms of the targeted primal problem. Keywords: Hydro-Thermal coordination, Lagrangian relaxation, Lagrangian dual problem, Lagrange multipliers, Subgradient method

Anticipating and Coordinating Voltage Control for Interconnected Power Systems

This paper deals with the application of an anticipating and coordinating feedback control scheme in order to mitigate the long-term voltage instability of multi-area power systems. Each local area is uniquely controlled by a control agent (CA) selecting control values based on model predictive control (MPC) and is possibly operated by an independent transmission system operator (TSO). Each MPC-based CA only knows a detailed local hybrid system model of its own area, employing reduced-order quasi steady-state (QSS) hybrid models of its neighboring areas and even simpler PV models for remote areas, to anticipate (and then optimize) the future behavior of its own area. Moreover, the neighboring CAs agree on communicating their planned future control input sequence in order to coordinate their own control actions. The feasibility of the proposed method for real-time applications is explained, and some practical implementation issues are also discussed. The performance of the method, using time-domain simulation of the Nordic32 test system, is compared with the uncoordinated decentralized MPC (no information exchange among CAs), demonstrating the improved behavior achieved by combining anticipation and coordination. The robustness of the control scheme against modeling uncertainties is also illustrated

Spectrum optimization in multi-user multi-carrier systems with iterative convex and nonconvex approximation methods

Several practical multi-user multi-carrier communication systems are characterized by a multi-carrier interference channel system model where the interference is treated as noise. For these systems, spectrum optimization is a promising means to mitigate interference. This however corresponds to a challenging nonconvex optimization problem. Existing iterative convex approximation (ICA) methods consist in solving a series of improving convex approximations and are typically implemented in a per-user iterative approach. However they do not take this typical iterative implementation into account in their design. This paper proposes a novel class of iterative approximation methods that focuses explicitly on the per-user iterative implementation, which allows to relax the problem significantly, dropping joint convexity and even convexity requirements for the approximations. A systematic design framework is proposed to construct instances of this novel class, where several new iterative approximation methods are developed with improved per-user convex and nonconvex approximations that are both tighter and simpler to solve (in closed-form). As a result, these novel methods display a much faster convergence speed and require a significantly lower computational cost. Furthermore, a majority of the proposed methods can tackle the issue of getting stuck in bad locally optimal solutions, and hence improve solution quality compared to existing ICA methods.Comment: 33 pages, 7 figures. This work has been submitted for possible publicatio