Topic
Robust optimization
About: Robust optimization is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 7971 publications have been published within this topic receiving 198495 citations.
Papers published on a yearly basis
1 / 2
Papers
27 Jun 2011
TL;DR: This textbook provides a first course in stochastic programming suitable for students with a basic knowledge of linear programming, elementary analysis, and probability to help students develop an intuition on how to model uncertainty into mathematical problems.
Abstract: The aim of stochastic programming is to find optimal decisions in problems which involve uncertain data. This field is currently developing rapidly with contributions from many disciplines including operations research, mathematics, and probability. At the same time, it is now being applied in a wide variety of subjects ranging from agriculture to financial planning and from industrial engineering to computer networks. This textbook provides a first course in stochastic programming suitable for students with a basic knowledge of linear programming, elementary analysis, and probability. The authors aim to present a broad overview of the main themes and methods of the subject. Its prime goal is to help students develop an intuition on how to model uncertainty into mathematical problems, what uncertainty changes bring to the decision process, and what techniques help to manage uncertainty in solving the problems.In this extensively updated new edition there is more material on methods and examples including several new approaches for discrete variables, new results on risk measures in modeling and Monte Carlo sampling methods, a new chapter on relationships to other methods including approximate dynamic programming, robust optimization and online methods.The book is highly illustrated with chapter summaries and many examples and exercises. Students, researchers and practitioners in operations research and the optimization area will find it particularly of interest. Review of First Edition:"The discussion on modeling issues, the large number of examples used to illustrate the material, and the breadth of the coverage make'Introduction to Stochastic Programming' an ideal textbook for the area." (Interfaces, 1998)
6,381 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors propose an approach that attempts to make this trade-off more attractive by flexibly adjusting the level of conservatism of the robust solutions in terms of probabilistic bounds of constraint violations.
Abstract: A robust approach to solving linear optimization problems with uncertain data was proposed in the early 1970s and has recently been extensively studied and extended. Under this approach, we are willing to accept a suboptimal solution for the nominal values of the data in order to ensure that the solution remains feasible and near optimal when the data changes. A concern with such an approach is that it might be too conservative. In this paper, we propose an approach that attempts to make this trade-off more attractive; that is, we investigate ways to decrease what we call the price of robustness. In particular, we flexibly adjust the level of conservatism of the robust solutions in terms of probabilistic bounds of constraint violations. An attractive aspect of our method is that the new robust formulation is also a linear optimization problem. Thus we naturally extend our methods to discrete optimization problems in a tractable way. We report numerical results for a portfolio optimization problem, a knapsack problem, and a problem from the Net Lib library.
4,056 citations
TL;DR: This paper surveys the primary research, both theoretical and applied, in the area of robust optimization (RO), focusing on the computational attractiveness of RO approaches, as well as the modeling power and broad applicability of the methodology.
Abstract: In this paper we survey the primary research, both theoretical and applied, in the area of robust optimization (RO). Our focus is on the computational attractiveness of RO approaches, as well as the modeling power and broad applicability of the methodology. In addition to surveying prominent theoretical results of RO, we also present some recent results linking RO to adaptable models for multistage decision-making problems. Finally, we highlight applications of RO across a wide spectrum of domains, including finance, statistics, learning, and various areas of engineering.
2,353 citations
TL;DR: This paper proposes a model that describes uncertainty in both the distribution form (discrete, Gaussian, exponential, etc.) and moments (mean and covariance matrix) and demonstrates that for a wide range of cost functions the associated distributionally robust stochastic program can be solved efficiently.
Abstract: Stochastic programming can effectively describe many decision-making problems in uncertain environments. Unfortunately, such programs are often computationally demanding to solve. In addition, their solution can be misleading when there is ambiguity in the choice of a distribution for the random parameters. In this paper, we propose a model that describes uncertainty in both the distribution form (discrete, Gaussian, exponential, etc.) and moments (mean and covariance matrix). We demonstrate that for a wide range of cost functions the associated distributionally robust (or min-max) stochastic program can be solved efficiently. Furthermore, by deriving a new confidence region for the mean and the covariance matrix of a random vector, we provide probabilistic arguments for using our model in problems that rely heavily on historical data. These arguments are confirmed in a practical example of portfolio selection, where our framework leads to better-performing policies on the “true” distribution underlying the daily returns of financial assets.
2,067 citations
TL;DR: This paper characterize the desirable properties of a solution to models, when the problem data are described by a set of scenarios for their value, instead of using point estimates, and develops a general model formulation, called robust optimization RO, that explicitly incorporates the conflicting objectives of solution and model robustness.
Abstract: Mathematical programming models with noisy, erroneous, or incomplete data are common in operations research applications. Difficulties with such data are typically dealt with reactively-through sensitivity analysis-or proactively-through stochastic programming formulations. In this paper, we characterize the desirable properties of a solution to models, when the problem data are described by a set of scenarios for their value, instead of using point estimates. A solution to an optimization model is defined as: solution robust if it remains "close" to optimal for all scenarios of the input data, and model robust if it remains "almost" feasible for all data scenarios. We then develop a general model formulation, called robust optimization RO, that explicitly incorporates the conflicting objectives of solution and model robustness. Robust optimization is compared with the traditional approaches of sensitivity analysis and stochastic linear programming. The classical diet problem illustrates the issues. Robust optimization models are then developed for several real-world applications: power capacity expansion; matrix balancing and image reconstruction; air-force airline scheduling; scenario immunization for financial planning; and minimum weight structural design. We also comment on the suitability of parallel and distributed computer architectures for the solution of robust optimization models.
2,006 citations
Related Topics (5)
Performance Metrics
| Year | Papers |
|---|---|
| 2026 | 5 |
| 2025 | 164 |
| 2024 | 231 |
| 2023 | 405 |
| 2022 | 674 |
| 2021 | 775 |