Mathematics

We discuss connections between sequential system identification and control for linear time-invariant systems, which we term indirect data-driven control, as well as a direct data-driven control approach seeking an optimal decision compatible with recorded data assembled in a Hankel matrix and robustified through suitable regularizations. We formulate these two problems in the language of behavioral systems theory and parametric mathematical programs, and we bridge them through a multi-criteria formulation trading off system identification and control objectives. We illustrate our results with two methods from subspace identification and control: namely, subspace predictive control and low-rank approximation which constrain trajectories to be consistent with a non-parametric predictor derived from (respectively, the column span of) a data Hankel matrix. In both cases we conclude that direct and regularized data-driven control can be derived as convex relaxation of the indirect approach, and the regularizations account for an implicit identification step. Our analysis further reveals a novel regularizer and sheds light on the remarkable performance of direct methods on nonlinear systems.

Pointwise minimum norm control laws for hybrid dynamical systems are proposed. Hybrid systems are given by differential equations capturing the continuous dynamics or flows, and by difference equations capturing the discrete dynamics or jumps. The proposed control laws are defined as the pointwise minimum norm selection from the set of inputs guaranteeing a decrease of a control Lyapunov function. The cases of individual and common inputs during flows and jumps, as well as when inputs enter through one of the system dynamics, are considered. Examples illustrate the results.

This paper is concerned with the positive semidefinite (PSD) composite rank constraint system. By leveraging its equivalent reformulations, we present several criteria to identify the calmness of the multifunction associated to its partial perturbation and discuss the relation among them. Then, a collection of examples are provided to illustrate that these criteria can be satisfied for some common PSD composite rank constraint sets. Finally, the calmness of the associated multifunction is employed to establish the global exact penalty for the equivalent reformulation of the PSD composite rank constrained and regularized optimization problems.

Revenue management is important for carriers (e.g., airlines and railroads). In this paper, we focus on cargo capacity management which has received less attention in the literature than its passenger counterpart. More precisely, we focus on the problem of controlling booking accept/reject decisions: Given a limited capacity, accept a booking request or reject it to reserve capacity for future bookings with potentially higher revenue. We formulate the problem as a finite-horizon stochastic dynamic program. The cost of fulfilling the accepted bookings, incurred at the end of the horizon, depends on the packing and routing of the cargo. This is a computationally challenging aspect as the latter are solutions to an operational decision-making problem, in our application a vehicle routing problem (VRP). Seeking a balance between online and offline computation, we propose to train a predictor of the solution costs to the VRPs using supervised learning. In turn, we use the predictions online in approximate dynamic programming and reinforcement learning algorithms to solve the booking control problem. We compare the results to an existing approach in the literature and show that we are able to obtain control policies that provide increased profit at a reduced evaluation time. This is achieved thanks to accurate approximation of the operational costs and negligible computing time in comparison to solving the VRPs.

Chronic dialysis patients have been among the most vulnerable groups of the society during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic as they need regular treatments in a hospital environment, facing infection risk. Moreover, the demand for dialysis resources has significantly increased since many COVID-19 patients need acute dialysis due to kidney failure. In this study, we address capacity planning decisions of a hemodialysis clinic located within a major hospital in Istanbul, designated to serve both infected and uninfected patients during the pandemic with limited resources (i.e., dialysis machines). The hemodialysis clinic applies a three-unit cohorting strategy to treat four types of patients in separate units and at different times to mitigate infection spread risk among patients. Accordingly, at the beginning of each week, the clinic needs to determine the number of available dialysis machines to allocate to each unit that serves different patient cohorts. Given the uncertainties in the number of different types of patients that will need dialysis, it is a challenge to allocate the scarce dialysis resources effectively by evaluating which capacity configuration would minimize the overlapping treatment sessions of infected and uninfected patients over a week. We represent the uncertainties in the number of patients by a set of scenarios and present a two-stage stochastic programming approach to support capacity allocation decisions of the clinic. We present a case study based on the real-world patient data obtained from the clinic to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed modeling approach and compare the performance of different cohorting strategies.

This paper studies how to integrate rider mode preferences into the design of On-Demand Multimodal Transit Systems (ODMTS). It is motivated by a common worry in transit agencies that an ODMTS may be poorly designed if the latent demand, i.e., new riders adopting the system, is not captured. The paper proposes a bilevel optimization model to address this challenge, in which the leader problem determines the ODMTS design, and the follower problems identify the most cost efficient and convenient route for riders under the chosen design. The leader model contains a choice model for every potential rider that determines whether the rider adopts the ODMTS given her proposed route. To solve the bilevel optimization model, the paper proposes an exact decomposition method that includes Benders optimal cuts and nogood cuts to ensure the consistency of the rider choices in the leader and follower problems. Moreover, to improve computational efficiency, the paper proposes upper bounds on trip durations for the follower problems and valid inequalities that strenghten the nogood cuts. The proposed method is validated using an extensive computational study on a real data set from AAATA, the transit agency for the broader Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti region in Michigan. The study considers the impact of a number of factors, including the price of on-demand shuttles, the number of hubs, and accessibility criteria. The designed ODMTS feature high adoption rates and significantly shorter trip durations compared to the existing transit system and highlight the benefits in accessibility for low-income riders. Finally, the computational study demonstrates the efficiency of the decomposition method for the case study and the benefits of computational enhancements that improve the baseline method by several orders of magnitude.

Reliable, risk-averse design of complex engineering systems with optimized performance requires dealing with uncertainties. A conventional approach is to add safety margins to a design that was obtained from deterministic optimization. Safer engineering designs require appropriate cost and constraint function definitions that capture the risk associated with unwanted system behavior in the presence of uncertainties. The paper proposes two notions of certifiability. The first is based on accounting for the magnitude of failure to ensure data-informed conservativeness. The second is the ability to provide optimization convergence guarantees by preserving convexity. Satisfying these notions leads to certifiable risk-based design optimization (CRiBDO). In the context of CRiBDO, risk measures based on superquantile (a.k.a. conditional value-at-risk) and buffered probability of failure are analyzed. CRiBDO is contrasted with reliability-based design optimization (RBDO), where uncertainties are accounted for via the probability of failure, through a structural and a thermal design problem. A reformulation of the short column structural design problem leading to a convex CRiBDO problem is presented. The CRiBDO formulations capture more information about the problem to assign the appropriate conservativeness, exhibit superior optimization convergence by preserving properties of underlying functions, and alleviate the adverse effects of choosing hard failure thresholds required in RBDO.

Chance-constrained programming (CCP) is one of the most difficult classes of optimization problems that has attracted the attention of researchers since the 1950s. In this survey, we first review recent developments in mixed-integer linear formulations of chance-constrained programs that arise from finite discrete distributions (or sample average approximation). We highlight successful reformulations and decomposition techniques that enable the solution of large-scale instances. We then review active research in distributionally robust CCP, which is a framework to address the ambiguity in the distribution of the random data. The focal point of our review is scalable formulations that can be readily implemented with state-of-the-art optimization software. However, we also discuss alternative approaches and specialized algorithms. Furthermore, we highlight the prevalence of CCPs with a review of applications across multiple domains.

We study quasi-convex optimization problems, where only a subset of the constraints can be sampled, and yet one would like a probabilistic guarantee on the obtained solution with respect to the initial (unknown) optimization problem. Even though our results are partly applicable to general quasi-convex problems, in this work we introduce and study a particular subclass, which we call "quasi-linear problems". We provide optimality conditions for these problems. Thriving on this, we extend the approach of chance-constrained convex optimization to quasi-linear optimization problems. Finally, we show that this approach is useful for the stability analysis of black-box switched linear systems, from a finite set of sampled trajectories. It allows us to compute probabilistic upper bounds on the JSR of a large class of switched linear systems.

A problem of computing time-fuel optimal control for state transfer of a single input linear time invariant (LTI) system to the origin is considered. The input is assumed to be bounded. Since, the optimal control is bang-off-bang in nature, it is characterized by sequences of +1 , 0 and -1 and the corresponding switching time instants. All (candidate) sequences satisfying the Pontryagin's maximum principle (PMP) necessary conditions are characterized. The number of candidate sequences is obtained as a function of the order of system and a method to list all candidate sequences is derived. Corresponding to each candidate sequence, switching time instants are computed by solving a static optimization problem. Since the candidate control input is a piece-wise constant function, the time-fuel cost functional is converted to a linear function in switching time instants. By using a simple substitution of variables, reachability constraints are converted to polynomial equations and inequalities. Such a static optimization problem can be solved separately for each candidate sequence. Finally, the optimal control input is obtained from candidate sequences which gives the least cost. For each sequence, optimization problem can be solved by converting it to a generalized moment problem (GMP) and then solving a hierachical sequence of semidefinite relaxations to approximate the minima and minimizer [1]. Lastly, a numerical example is presented for demonstration of method.