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A taxonomy of constraints in black-box simulation-based optimization

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Abstract

The types of constraints encountered in black-box simulation-based optimization problems differ significantly from those addressed in nonlinear programming. We introduce a characterization of constraints to address this situation. We provide formal definitions for several constraint classes and present illustrative examples in the context of the resulting taxonomy. This taxonomy, denoted KARQ, is useful for modeling and problem formulation, as well as optimization software development and deployment. It can also be used as the basis for a dialog with practitioners in moving problems to increasingly solvable branches of optimization.

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Acknowledgements

This material was based upon work supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Advanced Scientific Computing Research applied mathematics program under contract nos. DE-AC02-05CH11231 and DE-AC02-06CH11357; by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research Grant FA9550-12-1-0198; and by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada Discovery Grant 418250. The authors thank the American Institute of Mathematics for the SQuaRE workshops that allowed them to initiate their discussions on the taxonomy; the authors thank the participants: Bobby Gramacy, Genetha Gray, Herbie Lee, and Garth Wells. Thanks also to Charles Audet, John Dennis, Warren Hare, Sven Leyffer, and Paul Patience, for their useful comments and suggestions.

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Correspondence to Sébastien Le Digabel.

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Le Digabel, S., Wild, S.M. A taxonomy of constraints in black-box simulation-based optimization. Optim Eng (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11081-023-09839-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11081-023-09839-3

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