(octave.info)Nonlinear Programming

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25.3 Nonlinear Programming
==========================

Octave can also perform general nonlinear minimization using a
successive quadratic programming solver.

 -- : [X, OBJ, INFO, ITER, NF, LAMBDA] = sqp (X0, PHI)
 -- : [...] = sqp (X0, PHI, G)
 -- : [...] = sqp (X0, PHI, G, H)
 -- : [...] = sqp (X0, PHI, G, H, LB, UB)
 -- : [...] = sqp (X0, PHI, G, H, LB, UB, MAXITER)
 -- : [...] = sqp (X0, PHI, G, H, LB, UB, MAXITER, TOL)
     Minimize an objective function using sequential quadratic
     programming (SQP).

     Solve the nonlinear program

          min phi (x)
           x

     subject to

          g(x)  = 0
          h(x) >= 0
          lb <= x <= ub

     using a sequential quadratic programming method.

     The first argument is the initial guess for the vector X0.

     The second argument is a function handle pointing to the objective
     function PHI.  The objective function must accept one vector
     argument and return a scalar.

     The second argument may also be a 2- or 3-element cell array of
     function handles.  The first element should point to the objective
     function, the second should point to a function that computes the
     gradient of the objective function, and the third should point to a
     function that computes the Hessian of the objective function.  If
     the gradient function is not supplied, the gradient is computed by
     finite differences.  If the Hessian function is not supplied, a
     BFGS update formula is used to approximate the Hessian.

     When supplied, the gradient function ‘PHI{2}’ must accept one
     vector argument and return a vector.  When supplied, the Hessian
     function ‘PHI{3}’ must accept one vector argument and return a
     matrix.

     The third and fourth arguments G and H are function handles
     pointing to functions that compute the equality constraints and the
     inequality constraints, respectively.  If the problem does not have
     equality (or inequality) constraints, then use an empty matrix ([])
     for G (or H).  When supplied, these equality and inequality
     constraint functions must accept one vector argument and return a
     vector.

     The third and fourth arguments may also be 2-element cell arrays of
     function handles.  The first element should point to the constraint
     function and the second should point to a function that computes
     the gradient of the constraint function:

                      [ d f(x)   d f(x)        d f(x) ]
          transpose ( [ ------   -----   ...   ------ ] )
                      [  dx_1     dx_2          dx_N  ]

     The fifth and sixth arguments, LB and UB, contain lower and upper
     bounds on X.  These must be consistent with the equality and
     inequality constraints G and H.  If the arguments are vectors then
     X(i) is bound by LB(i) and UB(i).  A bound can also be a scalar in
     which case all elements of X will share the same bound.  If only
     one bound (lb, ub) is specified then the other will default to
     (-REALMAX, +REALMAX).

     The seventh argument MAXITER specifies the maximum number of
     iterations.  The default value is 100.

     The eighth argument TOL specifies the tolerance for the stopping
     criteria.  The default value is ‘sqrt (eps)’.

     The value returned in INFO may be one of the following:

     101
          The algorithm terminated normally.  All constraints meet the
          specified tolerance.

     102
          The BFGS update failed.

     103
          The maximum number of iterations was reached.

     104
          The stepsize has become too small, i.e., delta X, is less than
          ‘TOL * norm (x)’.

     An example of calling ‘sqp’:

          function r = g (x)
            r = [ sumsq(x)-10;
                  x(2)*x(3)-5*x(4)*x(5);
                  x(1)^3+x(2)^3+1 ];
          endfunction

          function obj = phi (x)
            obj = exp (prod (x)) - 0.5*(x(1)^3+x(2)^3+1)^2;
          endfunction

          x0 = [-1.8; 1.7; 1.9; -0.8; -0.8];

          [x, obj, info, iter, nf, lambda] = sqp (x0, @phi, @g, [])

          x =

            -1.71714
             1.59571
             1.82725
            -0.76364
            -0.76364

          obj = 0.053950
          info = 101
          iter = 8
          nf = 10
          lambda =

            -0.0401627
             0.0379578
            -0.0052227

     See also: Note: qp.