Robust optimization with incremental recourse

In this paper, we consider an adaptive approach to address optimization problems with uncertain cost parameters. Here, the decision maker selects an initial decision, observes the realization of the uncertain cost parameters, and then is permitted to modify the initial decision. We treat the uncertainty using the framework of robust optimization in which uncertain parameters lie within a given set. The decision maker optimizes so as to develop the best cost guarantee in terms of the worst-case analysis. The recourse decision is ``incremental"; that is, the decision maker is permitted to change the initial solution by a small fixed amount. We refer to the resulting problem as the robust incremental problem. We study robust incremental variants of several optimization problems. We show that the robust incremental counterpart of a linear program is itself a linear program if the uncertainty set is polyhedral. Hence, it is solvable in polynomial time. We establish the NP-hardness for robust incremental linear programming for the case of a discrete uncertainty set. We show that the robust incremental shortest path problem is NP-complete when costs are chosen from a polyhedral uncertainty set, even in the case that only one new arc may be added to the initial path. We also address the complexity of several special cases of the robust incremental shortest path problem and the robust incremental minimum spanning tree problem

On recoverable and two-stage robust selection problems with budgeted uncertainty

In this paper the problem of selecting p out of n available items is discussed, such that their total cost is minimized. We assume that the item costs are not known exactly, but stem from a set of possible outcomes modeled through budgeted uncertainty sets, i.e., the interval uncertainty sets with an additional linear (budget) constraint, in their discrete and continuous variants. Robust recoverable and two-stage models of this selection problem are analyzed through an in-depth discussion of variables at their optimal values. Polynomial algorithms for both models under continuous budgeted uncertainty are proposed. In the case of discrete budgeted uncertainty, compact mixed integer formulations are constructed and some approximation algorithms are proposed. Polynomial combinatorial algorithms for the adversarial and incremental problems (the special cases of the considered robust models) under both discrete and continuous budgeted uncertainty are constructed