Radius of robust feasibility formulas for classes of convex programs with uncertain polynomial constraints

The radius of robust feasibility of a convex program with uncertain constraints gives a value for the maximal ‘size’ of an uncertainty set under which robust feasibility can be guaranteed. This paper provides an upper bound for the radius for convex programs with uncertain convex polynomial constraints and exact formulas for convex programs with SOS-convex polynomial constraints (or convex quadratic constraints) under affine data uncertainty. These exact formulas allow the radius to be computed by commonly available software.The first author would like to thank the University of New South Wales for its support during his stay in November/December 2014. This research was partially supported by the Australian Research Council, Discovery Project DP120100467, the MINECO of Spain and FEDER of EU, Grant MTM2014-59179-C2-1-P

The radius of robust feasibility of uncertain mathematical programs: A Survey and recent developments

The radius of robust feasibility provides a numerical value for the largest possible uncertainty set that guarantees feasibility of a robust counterpart of a mathematical program with uncertain constraints. The objective of this review of the state-of-the-art in this field is to present this useful tool of robust optimization to its potential users and to avoid undesirable overlapping of research works on the topic as those we have recently detected. In this paper we overview the existing literature on the radius of robust feasibility in continuous and mixed-integer linearly constrained programs, linearly constrained semi-infinite programs, convexly constrained programs, and conic linearly constrained programs. We also analyze the connection between the radius of robust feasibility and the distance to ill-posedness for different types of uncertain mathematical programs.This research was partially supported by the Australian Research Council, Discovery Project grant and the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities of Spain and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) of the European Commission, Grant PGC2018-097960-B-C22

Calculating Radius of Robust Feasibility of Uncertain Linear Conic Programs via Semi-definite Programs

The radius of robust feasibility provides a numerical value for the largest possible uncertainty set that guarantees robust feasibility of an uncertain linear conic program. This determines when the robust feasible set is non-empty. Otherwise, the robust counterpart of an uncertain program is not well defined as a robust optimization problem. In this paper, we address a key fundamental question of robust optimization: How to compute the radius of robust feasibility of uncertain linear conic programs, including linear programs? We first provide computable lower and upper bounds for the radius of robust feasibility for general uncertain linear conic programs under the commonly used ball uncertainty set. We then provide important classes of linear conic programs where the bounds are calculated by finding the optimal values of related semi-definite linear programs, among them uncertain semi-definite programs, uncertain second-order cone programs and uncertain support vector machine problems. In the case of an uncertain linear program, the exact formula allows us to calculate the radius by finding the optimal value of an associated second-order cone program.This research was partially supported by the Australian Research Council, Discovery Project DP120100467 and the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities of Spain and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) of the European Commission, Grant PGC2018-097960-B-C22

Data-driven Distributionally Robust Optimization Using the Wasserstein Metric: Performance Guarantees and Tractable Reformulations

We consider stochastic programs where the distribution of the uncertain parameters is only observable through a finite training dataset. Using the Wasserstein metric, we construct a ball in the space of (multivariate and non-discrete) probability distributions centered at the uniform distribution on the training samples, and we seek decisions that perform best in view of the worst-case distribution within this Wasserstein ball. The state-of-the-art methods for solving the resulting distributionally robust optimization problems rely on global optimization techniques, which quickly become computationally excruciating. In this paper we demonstrate that, under mild assumptions, the distributionally robust optimization problems over Wasserstein balls can in fact be reformulated as finite convex programs---in many interesting cases even as tractable linear programs. Leveraging recent measure concentration results, we also show that their solutions enjoy powerful finite-sample performance guarantees. Our theoretical results are exemplified in mean-risk portfolio optimization as well as uncertainty quantification.Comment: 42 pages, 10 figure

Recent contributions to linear semi-infinite optimization

This paper reviews the state-of-the-art in the theory of deterministic and uncertain linear semi-infinite optimization, presents some numerical approaches to this type of problems, and describes a selection of recent applications in a variety of fields. Extensions to related optimization areas, as convex semi-infinite optimization, linear infinite optimization, and multi-objective linear semi-infinite optimization, are also commented.This work was supported by the MINECO of Spain and ERDF of EU, Grant MTM2014-59179-C2-1-P, and by the Australian Research Council, Project DP160100854

Recent contributions to linear semi-infinite optimization: an update

This paper reviews the state-of-the-art in the theory of deterministic and uncertain linear semi-infinite optimization, presents some numerical approaches to this type of problems, and describes a selection of recent applications in a variety of fields. Extensions to related optimization areas, as convex semi-infinite optimization, linear infinite optimization, and multi-objective linear semi-infinite optimization, are also commented.This is an updated version of the paper “Recent contributions to linear semi-infinite optimization” that appeared in 4OR, 15(3), 221–264 (2017). It was supported by the MINECO of Spain and ERDF of EU, Grant MTM2014-59179-C2-1-P, and by the Australian Research Council, Project DP160100854

A unified approach to inverse robust optimization problems

A variety of approaches has been developed to deal with uncertain optimization problems. Often, they start with a given set of uncertainties and then try to minimize the influence of these uncertainties. Depending on the approach used, the corresponding price of robustness is different. The reverse view is to first set a budget for the price one is willing to pay and then find the most robust solution. In this article, we aim to unify these inverse approaches to robustness. We provide a general problem definition and a proof of the existence of its solution. We study properties of this solution such as closedness, convexity, and boundedness. We also provide a comparison with existing robustness concepts such as the stability radius, the resilience radius, and the robust feasibility radius. We show that the general definition unifies these approaches. We conclude with examples that demonstrate the flexibility of the introduced concept.Comment: 25 pages, 3 figure