Mixed-integer optimal control of fast dynamical systems

<p>Many applications in engineering, computer science and economics involve <em>mixed-integer optimal control problems</em>. Solving these problems in real-time is a challenging task because of the explosion of integer combinations to evaluate. This thesis focuses on the developmen...

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Main Author: Stellato, B
Other Authors: Goulart, P
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: 2017
Subjects:
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author Stellato, B
author2 Goulart, P
author_facet Goulart, P
Stellato, B
author_sort Stellato, B
collection OXFORD
description <p>Many applications in engineering, computer science and economics involve <em>mixed-integer optimal control problems</em>. Solving these problems in real-time is a challenging task because of the explosion of integer combinations to evaluate. This thesis focuses on the development of new algorithms for mixed-integer programming with an emphasis on optimal control problems of fast dynamical systems with discrete controls.</p> <p>The first part proposes two reformulations to reduce the computational complexity. The first reformulation avoids integer variables altogether. By considering a sequence of switched dynamics, we analyze the switching time optimization problem. Even though it is a continuous smooth problem, it is non-convex and the cost function and derivatives are hard to compute. We develop a new efficient method to compute the cost function and its derivatives. Our technique brings up to two orders of magnitude speedups with respect to state-of-the-art tools. The second approach reduces the number of integer decisions. In hybrid model predictive control (MPC) the computational complexity grows exponentially with the horizon length. Using approximate dynamic programming (ADP) we reduce the horizon length while maintaining good control performance by approximating the tail cost offline. This approach allows, for the first time, the application of such control techniques to fast dynamical systems with sampling times of only a few microseconds.</p> <p>The second part investigates embedded branch-and-bound algorithms for mixed-integer quadratic programs (MIQPs). A core component of these methods is the solution of continuous quadratic programs (QPs). We develop OSQP, a new robust and efficient general-purpose QP solver based on the alternating direction method of multipliers (ADMM) and able, for the first time, to detect infeasible problems. We include OSQP into a custom branch-and-bound algorithm suitable for embedded systems. Our extension requires only a single matrix factorization and exploits warm-starting, thereby greatly reducing the number of ADMM iterations required. Numerical examples show that our algorithm solves small to medium scale MIQPs more quickly than commercial solvers.</p>
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spelling oxford-uuid:b8a7323c-e36e-45ec-ae8d-6c9eb43506292022-03-27T04:57:17ZMixed-integer optimal control of fast dynamical systemsThesishttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_db06uuid:b8a7323c-e36e-45ec-ae8d-6c9eb4350629Mathematical optimizationEnglishORA Deposit2017Stellato, BGoulart, P<p>Many applications in engineering, computer science and economics involve <em>mixed-integer optimal control problems</em>. Solving these problems in real-time is a challenging task because of the explosion of integer combinations to evaluate. This thesis focuses on the development of new algorithms for mixed-integer programming with an emphasis on optimal control problems of fast dynamical systems with discrete controls.</p> <p>The first part proposes two reformulations to reduce the computational complexity. The first reformulation avoids integer variables altogether. By considering a sequence of switched dynamics, we analyze the switching time optimization problem. Even though it is a continuous smooth problem, it is non-convex and the cost function and derivatives are hard to compute. We develop a new efficient method to compute the cost function and its derivatives. Our technique brings up to two orders of magnitude speedups with respect to state-of-the-art tools. The second approach reduces the number of integer decisions. In hybrid model predictive control (MPC) the computational complexity grows exponentially with the horizon length. Using approximate dynamic programming (ADP) we reduce the horizon length while maintaining good control performance by approximating the tail cost offline. This approach allows, for the first time, the application of such control techniques to fast dynamical systems with sampling times of only a few microseconds.</p> <p>The second part investigates embedded branch-and-bound algorithms for mixed-integer quadratic programs (MIQPs). A core component of these methods is the solution of continuous quadratic programs (QPs). We develop OSQP, a new robust and efficient general-purpose QP solver based on the alternating direction method of multipliers (ADMM) and able, for the first time, to detect infeasible problems. We include OSQP into a custom branch-and-bound algorithm suitable for embedded systems. Our extension requires only a single matrix factorization and exploits warm-starting, thereby greatly reducing the number of ADMM iterations required. Numerical examples show that our algorithm solves small to medium scale MIQPs more quickly than commercial solvers.</p>
spellingShingle Mathematical optimization
Stellato, B
Mixed-integer optimal control of fast dynamical systems
title Mixed-integer optimal control of fast dynamical systems
title_full Mixed-integer optimal control of fast dynamical systems
title_fullStr Mixed-integer optimal control of fast dynamical systems
title_full_unstemmed Mixed-integer optimal control of fast dynamical systems
title_short Mixed-integer optimal control of fast dynamical systems
title_sort mixed integer optimal control of fast dynamical systems
topic Mathematical optimization
work_keys_str_mv AT stellatob mixedintegeroptimalcontroloffastdynamicalsystems