589 research outputs found
Simple Approximations of Semialgebraic Sets and their Applications to Control
Many uncertainty sets encountered in control systems analysis and design can
be expressed in terms of semialgebraic sets, that is as the intersection of
sets described by means of polynomial inequalities. Important examples are for
instance the solution set of linear matrix inequalities or the Schur/Hurwitz
stability domains. These sets often have very complicated shapes (non-convex,
and even non-connected), which renders very difficult their manipulation. It is
therefore of considerable importance to find simple-enough approximations of
these sets, able to capture their main characteristics while maintaining a low
level of complexity. For these reasons, in the past years several convex
approximations, based for instance on hyperrect-angles, polytopes, or
ellipsoids have been proposed. In this work, we move a step further, and
propose possibly non-convex approximations , based on a small volume polynomial
superlevel set of a single positive polynomial of given degree. We show how
these sets can be easily approximated by minimizing the L1 norm of the
polynomial over the semialgebraic set, subject to positivity constraints.
Intuitively, this corresponds to the trace minimization heuristic commonly
encounter in minimum volume ellipsoid problems. From a computational viewpoint,
we design a hierarchy of linear matrix inequality problems to generate these
approximations, and we provide theoretically rigorous convergence results, in
the sense that the hierarchy of outer approximations converges in volume (or,
equivalently, almost everywhere and almost uniformly) to the original set. Two
main applications of the proposed approach are considered. The first one aims
at reconstruction/approximation of sets from a finite number of samples. In the
second one, we show how the concept of polynomial superlevel set can be used to
generate samples uniformly distributed on a given semialgebraic set. The
efficiency of the proposed approach is demonstrated by different numerical
examples
Convex inner approximations of nonconvex semialgebraic sets applied to fixed-order controller design
We describe an elementary algorithm to build convex inner approximations of
nonconvex sets. Both input and output sets are basic semialgebraic sets given
as lists of defining multivariate polynomials. Even though no optimality
guarantees can be given (e.g. in terms of volume maximization for bounded
sets), the algorithm is designed to preserve convex boundaries as much as
possible, while removing regions with concave boundaries. In particular, the
algorithm leaves invariant a given convex set. The algorithm is based on
Gloptipoly 3, a public-domain Matlab package solving nonconvex polynomial
optimization problems with the help of convex semidefinite programming
(optimization over linear matrix inequalities, or LMIs). We illustrate how the
algorithm can be used to design fixed-order controllers for linear systems,
following a polynomial approach
Convex computation of the region of attraction of polynomial control systems
We address the long-standing problem of computing the region of attraction
(ROA) of a target set (e.g., a neighborhood of an equilibrium point) of a
controlled nonlinear system with polynomial dynamics and semialgebraic state
and input constraints. We show that the ROA can be computed by solving an
infinite-dimensional convex linear programming (LP) problem over the space of
measures. In turn, this problem can be solved approximately via a classical
converging hierarchy of convex finite-dimensional linear matrix inequalities
(LMIs). Our approach is genuinely primal in the sense that convexity of the
problem of computing the ROA is an outcome of optimizing directly over system
trajectories. The dual infinite-dimensional LP on nonnegative continuous
functions (approximated by polynomial sum-of-squares) allows us to generate a
hierarchy of semialgebraic outer approximations of the ROA at the price of
solving a sequence of LMI problems with asymptotically vanishing conservatism.
This sharply contrasts with the existing literature which follows an
exclusively dual Lyapunov approach yielding either nonconvex bilinear matrix
inequalities or conservative LMI conditions. The approach is simple and readily
applicable as the outer approximations are the outcome of a single semidefinite
program with no additional data required besides the problem description
The Maximal Positively Invariant Set: Polynomial Setting
This note considers the maximal positively invariant set for polynomial
discrete time dynamics subject to constraints specified by a basic
semialgebraic set. The note utilizes a relatively direct, but apparently
overlooked, fact stating that the related preimage map preserves basic
semialgebraic structure. In fact, this property propagates to underlying
set--dynamics induced by the associated restricted preimage map in general and
to its maximal trajectory in particular. The finite time convergence of the
corresponding maximal trajectory to the maximal positively invariant set is
verified under reasonably mild conditions. The analysis is complemented with a
discussion of computational aspects and a prototype implementation based on
existing toolboxes for polynomial optimization
Reconstruction of Support of a Measure From Its Moments
In this paper, we address the problem of reconstruction of support of a
measure from its moments. More precisely, given a finite subset of the moments
of a measure, we develop a semidefinite program for approximating the support
of measure using level sets of polynomials. To solve this problem, a sequence
of convex relaxations is provided, whose optimal solution is shown to converge
to the support of measure of interest. Moreover, the provided approach is
modified to improve the results for uniform measures. Numerical examples are
presented to illustrate the performance of the proposed approach.Comment: This has been submitted to the 53rd IEEE Conference on Decision and
Contro
Matrix Convex Hulls of Free Semialgebraic Sets
This article resides in the realm of the noncommutative (free) analog of real
algebraic geometry - the study of polynomial inequalities and equations over
the real numbers - with a focus on matrix convex sets and their projections
. A free semialgebraic set which is convex as well as bounded and open
can be represented as the solution set of a Linear Matrix Inequality (LMI), a
result which suggests that convex free semialgebraic sets are rare. Further,
Tarski's transfer principle fails in the free setting: The projection of a free
convex semialgebraic set need not be free semialgebraic. Both of these results,
and the importance of convex approximations in the optimization community,
provide impetus and motivation for the study of the free (matrix) convex hull
of free semialgebraic sets.
This article presents the construction of a sequence of LMI domains
in increasingly many variables whose projections are
successively finer outer approximations of the matrix convex hull of a free
semialgebraic set . It is based on free analogs of
moments and Hankel matrices. Such an approximation scheme is possibly the best
that can be done in general. Indeed, natural noncommutative transcriptions of
formulas for certain well known classical (commutative) convex hulls does not
produce the convex hulls in the free case. This failure is illustrated on one
of the simplest free nonconvex .
A basic question is which free sets are the projection of a free
semialgebraic set ? Techniques and results of this paper bear upon this
question which is open even for convex sets.Comment: 41 pages; includes table of contents; supplementary material (a
Mathematica notebook) can be found at
http://www.math.auckland.ac.nz/~igorklep/publ.htm
Moment-Sum-Of-Squares Approach For Fast Risk Estimation In Uncertain Environments
In this paper, we address the risk estimation problem where one aims at
estimating the probability of violation of safety constraints for a robot in
the presence of bounded uncertainties with arbitrary probability distributions.
In this problem, an unsafe set is described by level sets of polynomials that
is, in general, a non-convex set. Uncertainty arises due to the probabilistic
parameters of the unsafe set and probabilistic states of the robot. To solve
this problem, we use a moment-based representation of probability
distributions. We describe upper and lower bounds of the risk in terms of a
linear weighted sum of the moments. Weights are coefficients of a univariate
Chebyshev polynomial obtained by solving a sum-of-squares optimization problem
in the offline step. Hence, given a finite number of moments of probability
distributions, risk can be estimated in real-time. We demonstrate the
performance of the provided approach by solving probabilistic collision
checking problems where we aim to find the probability of collision of a robot
with a non-convex obstacle in the presence of probabilistic uncertainties in
the location of the robot and size, location, and geometry of the obstacle.Comment: 57th IEEE Conference on Decision and Control 201
Formal Proofs for Nonlinear Optimization
We present a formally verified global optimization framework. Given a
semialgebraic or transcendental function and a compact semialgebraic domain
, we use the nonlinear maxplus template approximation algorithm to provide a
certified lower bound of over . This method allows to bound in a modular
way some of the constituents of by suprema of quadratic forms with a well
chosen curvature. Thus, we reduce the initial goal to a hierarchy of
semialgebraic optimization problems, solved by sums of squares relaxations. Our
implementation tool interleaves semialgebraic approximations with sums of
squares witnesses to form certificates. It is interfaced with Coq and thus
benefits from the trusted arithmetic available inside the proof assistant. This
feature is used to produce, from the certificates, both valid underestimators
and lower bounds for each approximated constituent. The application range for
such a tool is widespread; for instance Hales' proof of Kepler's conjecture
yields thousands of multivariate transcendental inequalities. We illustrate the
performance of our formal framework on some of these inequalities as well as on
examples from the global optimization literature.Comment: 24 pages, 2 figures, 3 table
Some Applications of Polynomial Optimization in Operations Research and Real-Time Decision Making
We demonstrate applications of algebraic techniques that optimize and certify
polynomial inequalities to problems of interest in the operations research and
transportation engineering communities. Three problems are considered: (i)
wireless coverage of targeted geographical regions with guaranteed signal
quality and minimum transmission power, (ii) computing real-time certificates
of collision avoidance for a simple model of an unmanned vehicle (UV)
navigating through a cluttered environment, and (iii) designing a nonlinear
hovering controller for a quadrotor UV, which has recently been used for load
transportation. On our smaller-scale applications, we apply the sum of squares
(SOS) relaxation and solve the underlying problems with semidefinite
programming. On the larger-scale or real-time applications, we use our recently
introduced "SDSOS Optimization" techniques which result in second order cone
programs. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study of real-time
applications of sum of squares techniques in optimization and control. No
knowledge in dynamics and control is assumed from the reader
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