• Registered: 2010-09-28
  • Posts: 2

Topic: Specifying constraints for NLP

I'm new to optimization, and wish to specify the following constraints for my system:

x[0]+x[1]+x[2] == 1

and

0<x[3]<a_constant

Doing this:

def constraint1(x):
    print 'calling constraint 1, value is:', x, 
    if 0<x[3]<1.5:
        return 0
    else:
        return 1

def constraint2(x):
    print 'calling constraint 2, value is:', x, 
    if x[0]+x[1]+x[2]==1:
        return 0
    else:
        return 1

constraints = [constraint1, constraint2]

nlp = NLP(f=goalFunction, x0=[0.8,0.06,0.14, 1/60], c=constraints)
optStruct = nlp.solve('ralg')

doesn't work, as x[3]<0 is still passed to goalFunction. I'm sure I'm doing something fundamentally wrong here, but even after digging through the documentation and the examples, I can't figure out what. The return values of the constraint functions when the constraints are satisfied are <=0 as specified in the documentation.

Cheers,
Chinmay Kanchi
PhD student
University of Birmingham,
Using OpenOpt to determine optimal gut structures for herbivores.

Last edited by cgkanchi (2010-09-28 17:13:39)

  • Dmitrey
  • OpenOpt developer
  • Offline
  • From: Cherkasy town, Ukraine
  • Registered: 2008-12-15
  • Posts: 637

Re: Specifying constraints for NLP

Of course it will not work, it is expected that consraint functions return their exact float values instead of binaries True/False.

In FuncDesigner it should look like this:
from FuncDesigner import *
from openopt import NLP
x = oovar()
constraints = (x[3]>0, x[3]<1.5, x[0]+x[1]+x[2] == 1) # maybe you should accompany it with personal toleranses, see doc
#define your objective here, e.g.
obj = sum(x**2)+2*x[2]
nlp = NLP(obj, {x:[0.8,0.06,0.14, 1.0/60]}, constraints=constraints)
optStruct = nlp.minimize('ralg')

See https://sage.openopt.org:8000/home/pub/32/ for results

Dmitrey's Website

  • Registered: 2010-09-28
  • Posts: 2

Re: Specifying constraints for NLP

Thanks! That more or less worked. I'm having a related problem now though. Even, after specifying the constraints

constraints = [x[0]>0, x[1]>0, x[2]>0, x[3]>0, x[3]<1.5, x[1]+x[2]+x[3] == 1]

somehow negative values seem to creep in. These aren't small negative values such as (for example) -1e-6, but rather large ones, approaching between -0.1 and -0.9. As I'm trying to solve a rather complex ODE model with invalid results for negative inputs, I need to prevent this from happening. The ODE model itself is solved independently of the optimization code, which only makes a single function call. I've connected the optimization and the ODE solution by creating an oofunc which makes the call to the ODE code, which then gets passed to the NLP constructor. I have also attempted to change the tolerances for the constraint functions, with no result.

Do let me know if I haven't provided enough details.

Cheers and many thanks,
Chinmay

Last edited by cgkanchi (2010-09-28 23:33:13)

  • Dmitrey
  • OpenOpt developer
  • Offline
  • From: Cherkasy town, Ukraine
  • Registered: 2008-12-15
  • Posts: 637

Re: Specifying constraints for NLP

Of course negative values may trigger in the optimization trajectory for a solver working on a general-constrained problem.

First of all you'd better get rid of x with indexes and use normal named variables, e.g.
massOfGrass, massOfWater, massOfProtein, massOfCarbons = oovars(4)
constraints = [massOfGrass>0, massOfWater>0, (etc)]

If you see you've got a point into your objective that makes it out of domain, you should either return numpy.nan .

Another approach: get rid of massOfGrass + massOfWater + massOfProtein == 1 via
massOfWater, massOfProtein, massOfCarbons = oovars(3)
massOfGrass = 1 - massOfWater - massOfProtein
and then use box-bound solver, usually scipy_lbfgsb and algencan works better than others. They will not go outside of the box-bounded domain.

HTH, D.

Dmitrey's Website