Skip to main content
Log in

Tractable Approximations to Robust Conic Optimization Problems

  • Published:
Mathematical Programming Submit manuscript

Abstract

In earlier proposals, the robust counterpart of conic optimization problems exhibits a lateral increase in complexity, i.e., robust linear programming problems (LPs) become second order cone problems (SOCPs), robust SOCPs become semidefinite programming problems (SDPs), and robust SDPs become NP-hard. We propose a relaxed robust counterpart for general conic optimization problems that (a) preserves the computational tractability of the nominal problem; specifically the robust conic optimization problem retains its original structure, i.e., robust LPs remain LPs, robust SOCPs remain SOCPs and robust SDPs remain SDPs, and (b) allows us to provide a guarantee on the probability that the robust solution is feasible when the uncertain coefficients obey independent and identically distributed normal distributions.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Ben-Tal, A., Nemirovski, A.: Robust convex optimization. Math. Oper. Res. 23, 769–805 (1998)

    MATH  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  2. Ben-Tal, A., Nemirovski, A.: On the quality of SDP approximations of uncertain SDP programs, Research Report #4/98 Optimization Laboratory, Faculty of Industrial Engineering and Management, Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, Israel (1998)

  3. Ben-Tal, A., Nemirovski, A.: Robust solutions to uncertain programs. Oper. Res. Let. 25, 1–13 (1999)

    Article  MATH  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  4. Ben-Tal, A., Nemirovski, A.: Robust solutions of Linear Programming problems contaminated with uncertain data, Math. Progr. 88, 411–424 (2000)

    Article  MATH  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  5. Ben-Tal, A., Nemirovski, A.: Lectures on Modern Convex Optimization: Analysis, Algorithms, and Engineering Applications. MPR-SIAM Series on Optimization, SIAM, Philadelphia 2001

  6. Ben-Tal, A., El-Ghaoui, L., Nemirovski, A.: Robust semidefinite programming. In: Saigal, R., Vandenberghe, L., Wolkowicz, H., (eds.), Semidefinite programming and applications, Kluwer Academic Publishers, (2000)

  7. Bertsimas, D., Brown, D.: Constrainted stochastic LQC: A tractable approach. submitted for publication, 2004

  8. Bertsimas, D., Pachamanova, D., Sim, M.: Robust Linear Optimization under General Norms. Operations Research Letters, 32, 510–516 (2003)

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  9. Bertsimas, D., Sim, M.: Price of Robustness. Oper. Res. 52 (1), 35–53 (2004)

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  10. Bertsimas, D., Sim, M.: Robust Discrete Optimization and Network Flows. Math. Progr. 98, 49–71 (2003)

    Article  MATH  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  11. Birge, J.R., Louveaux, F.: Introduction to Stochastic Programming. Springer, New York, 1997

  12. El-Ghaoui, Lebret, H.: Robust solutions to least-square problems to uncertain data matrices. SIAM J. Matrix Anal. Appl. 18, 1035–1064 (1997)

    Article  MATH  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  13. El-Ghaoui, L., Oustry, F., Lebret, H.: Robust solutions to uncertain semidefinite programs. SIAM J. Optim. 9, 33–52 (1998)

    Article  MATH  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  14. Güler, 0, Tunçel, L.: Characterization of the barrier parameter of homogeneous convex cones. Math. Progr. 81, 55–76 (1998)

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  15. Nemirovski, A.: On tractable approximations of ramdomly perturbed convex constraints. In: Proceedings of the 42nd IEEE Conference on Decision and Control, Maui, Hawaii, USA, December, pp. 2419–2422, 2003

  16. Nemirovski, A.: Regular Banach spaces and large deviations of random sums. http://iew3.technion.ac.il/Home/Users/Nemirovski.html#part4 2004

  17. Renegar, J.: A mathematical view of interior-point methods in convex optimization. MPS-SIAM Series on Optimization, SIAM, Philadelphia, 2001

  18. Soyster, A.L.: Convex programming with set-inclusive constraints and applications to inexact linear programming. Oper. Res. 21, 1154–1157 (1973)

    Article  MATH  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Dimitris Bertsimas.

Additional information

The research of the author was partially supported by the Singapore-MIT alliance.

The research of the author is supported by NUS academic research grant R-314-000-066-122 and the Singapore-MIT alliance.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Bertsimas, D., Sim, M. Tractable Approximations to Robust Conic Optimization Problems. Math. Program. 107, 5–36 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10107-005-0677-1

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10107-005-0677-1

Keywords

Navigation