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In this paper, we consider the maximizing of the probability P ζ ∣ ζ ∈ K (x) over a closed and convex set X , a special case of the chance-constrained optimization problem. Suppose K (x) ≜ ζ ∈ K ∣ c (x , ζ) ≥ 0 , and ζ is uniformly distributed on a convex and compact set K and c (x , ζ) is defined as either c (x , ζ) ≜ 1 - ζ T x m where m ≥ 0 (Setting A) or c (x , ζ) ≜ T x - ζ (Setting B). We show that in either setting, by leveraging recent findings in the context of non-Gaussian integrals of positively homogenous functions, P ζ ∣ ζ ∈ K (x) can be expressed as the expectation of a suitably defined continuous function F (∙ , ξ) with respect to an appropriately defined Gaussian density (or its variant), i.e. E p ~ F (x , ξ) . Aided by a recent observation in convex analysis, we then develop a convex representation of the original problem requiring the minimization of g E F (∙ , ξ) over X , where g is an appropriately defined smooth convex function. Traditional stochastic approximation schemes cannot contend with the minimization of g E F (∙ , ξ) over X , since conditionally unbiased sampled gradients are unavailable. We then develop a regularized variance-reduced stochastic approximation (r-VRSA) scheme that obviates the need for such unbiasedness by combining iterative regularization with variance-reduction. Notably, (r-VRSA) is characterized by almost-sure convergence guarantees, a convergence rate of O (1 / k 1 / 2 - a) in expected sub-optimality where a > 0 , and a sample complexity of O (1 / ϵ 6 + δ) where δ > 0 . To the best of our knowledge, this may be the first such scheme for probability maximization problems with convergence and rate guarantees. Preliminary numerics on a portfolio selection problem (Setting A) and a set-covering problem (Setting B) suggest that the scheme competes well with naive mini-batch SA schemes as well as integer programming approximation methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper investigates analytical properties of dynamic probabilistic constraints (chance constraints). The underlying random distribution is supposed to be continuous. In the first part, a general multistage model with decision rules depending on past observations of the random process is analyzed. Basic properties like (weak sequential) (semi-) continuity of the probability function or existence of solutions are studied. It turns out that the results differ significantly according to whether decision rules are embedded into Lebesgue or Sobolev spaces. In the second part, the simplest meaningful two-stage model with decision rules from L 2 is investigated. More specific properties like Lipschitz continuity and differentiability of the probability function are considered. Explicitly verifiable conditions for these properties are provided along with explicit gradient formulae in the Gaussian case. The application of such formulae in the context of necessary optimality conditions is discussed and a concrete identification of solutions presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we study data-driven chance constrained stochastic programs, or more specifically, stochastic programs with distributionally robust chance constraints (DCCs) in a data-driven setting to provide robust solutions for the classical chance constrained stochastic program facing ambiguous probability distributions of random parameters. We consider a family of density-based confidence sets based on a general $$\phi $$ -divergence measure, and formulate DCC from the perspective of robust feasibility by allowing the ambiguous distribution to run adversely within its confidence set. We derive an equivalent reformulation for DCC and show that it is equivalent to a classical chance constraint with a perturbed risk level. We also show how to evaluate the perturbed risk level by using a bisection line search algorithm for general $$\phi $$ -divergence measures. In several special cases, our results can be strengthened such that we can derive closed-form expressions for the perturbed risk levels. In addition, we show that the conservatism of DCC vanishes as the size of historical data goes to infinity. Furthermore, we analyze the relationship between the conservatism of DCC and the size of historical data, which can help indicate the value of data. Finally, we conduct extensive computational experiments to test the performance of the proposed DCC model and compare various $$\phi $$ -divergence measures based on a capacitated lot-sizing problem with a quality-of-service requirement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Optimization problems face random constraint violations when uncertainty arises in constraint parameters. Effective ways of controlling such violations include risk constraints, e.g., chance constraints and conditional Value-at-Risk constraints. This paper studies these two types of risk constraints when the probability distribution of the uncertain parameters is ambiguous. In particular, we assume that the distributional information consists of the first two moments of the uncertainty and a generalized notion of unimodality. We find that the ambiguous risk constraints in this setting can be recast as a set of second-order cone (SOC) constraints. In order to facilitate the algorithmic implementation, we also derive efficient ways of finding violated SOC constraints. Finally, we demonstrate the theoretical results via computational case studies on power system operations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we assume that a deterministic multiobjective programming problem is approximated by surrogate problems based on estimations for the objective functions and the constraints. Making use of a large deviations approach, we investigate the behaviour of the constraint sets, the sets of efficient points and the solution sets if the size of the underlying sample tends to infinity. The results are illustrated by applying them to stochastic programming with chance constraints, where (i) the distribution function of the random variable is estimated by the empirical distribution function, (ii) certain parameters have to be estimated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the computational aspects of distributionally robust chance constrained optimization problems. In contrast to previous research that mainly focused on the linear case (with a few exceptions discussed in detail below), we consider the case where the constraints can be non-linear to the decision variable, and in particular to the uncertain parameters. This formulation is of great interest as it can model non-linear uncertainties that are ubiquitous in applications. Our main result shows that distributionally robust chance constrained optimization is tractable, provided that the uncertainty is characterized by its mean and variance, and the constraint function is concave in the decision variables, and quasi-convex in the uncertain parameters. En route, we establish an equivalence relationship between distributionally robust chance constraint and the robust optimization framework that models uncertainty in a deterministic manner. This links two broadly applied paradigms in decision making under uncertainty and extends previous results of the same spirit in the linear case to more general cases. We then consider probabilistic envelope constraints, a generalization of distributionally robust chance constraints first proposed in Xu et al. (Oper Res 60:682-700, ) for the linear case. We extend this framework to the non-linear case, and derive sufficient conditions that guarantee its tractability. Finally, we investigate tractable approximations of joint probabilistic envelope constraints, and provide the conditions when these approximation formulations are tractable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Robust Optimization is a rapidly developing methodology for handling optimization problems affected by non-stochastic “uncertain-but- bounded” data perturbations. In this paper, we overview several selected topics in this popular area, specifically, (1) recent extensions of the basic concept of robust counterpart of an optimization problem with uncertain data, (2) tractability of robust counterparts, (3) links between RO and traditional chance constrained settings of problems with stochastic data, and (4) a novel generic application of the RO methodology in Robust Linear Control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study a generalized distributionally robust chance-constrained set covering problem (DRC) with a Wasserstein ambiguity set, where both decisions and uncertainty are binary-valued. We establish the NP-hardness of DRC and recast it as a two-stage stochastic program, which facilitates decomposition algorithms. Furthermore, we derive two families of valid inequalities. The first family targets the hypograph of a "shifted" submodular function, which is associated with each scenario of the two-stage reformulation. We show that the valid inequalities give a complete description of the convex hull of the hypograph. The second family mixes inequalities across multiple scenarios and gains further strength via lifting. Our numerical experiments demonstrate the out-of-sample performance of the DRC model and the effectiveness of our proposed reformulation and valid inequalities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigate sample average approximation (SAA) for two-stage stochastic programs without relatively complete recourse, i.e., for problems in which there are first-stage feasible solutions that are not guaranteed to have a feasible recourse action. As a feasibility measure of the SAA solution, we consider the "recourse likelihood", which is the probability that the solution has a feasible recourse action. For ϵ ∈ (0 , 1) , we demonstrate that the probability that a SAA solution has recourse likelihood below 1 - ϵ converges to zero exponentially fast with the sample size. Next, we analyze the rate of convergence of optimal solutions of the SAA to optimal solutions of the true problem for problems with a finite feasible region, such as bounded integer programming problems. For problems with non-finite feasible region, we propose modified "padded" SAA problems and demonstrate in two cases that such problems can yield, with high confidence, solutions that are certain to have a feasible recourse decision. Finally, we conduct a numerical study on a two-stage resource planning problem that illustrates the results, and also suggests there may be room for improvement in some of the theoretical analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We consider exact deterministic mixed-integer programming (MIP) reformulations of distributionally robust chance-constrained programs (DR-CCP) with random right-hand sides over Wasserstein ambiguity sets. The existing MIP formulations are known to have weak continuous relaxation bounds, and, consequently, for hard instances with small radius, or with large problem sizes, the branch-and-bound based solution processes suffer from large optimality gaps even after hours of computation time. This significantly hinders the practical application of the DR-CCP paradigm. Motivated by these challenges, we conduct a polyhedral study to strengthen these formulations. We reveal several hidden connections between DR-CCP and its nominal counterpart (the sample average approximation), mixing sets, and robust 0–1 programming. By exploiting these connections in combination, we provide an improved formulation and two classes of valid inequalities for DR-CCP. We test the impact of our results on a stochastic transportation problem numerically. Our experiments demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach; in particular our improved formulation and proposed valid inequalities reduce the overall solution times remarkably. Moreover, this allows us to significantly scale up the problem sizes that can be handled in such DR-CCP formulations by reducing the solution times from hours to seconds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The essential structure of the mixed-integer programming formulation for chance-constrained program (CCP) is the intersection of multiple mixing sets with a 0-1 knapsack. To improve our computational capacity on CCP, an underlying substructure, the (single) mixing set with a 0-1 knapsack, has received substantial attentions recently. In this study, we consider a CCP problem with stochastic right-hand side under a finite discrete distribution. We first present a family of strong inequalities that subsumes known facet-defining ones for that single mixing set. Due to the flexibility of our generalized inequalities, we develop a new separation heuristic that has a complexity much less than existing one and guarantees generated cutting planes are facet-defining for the polyhedron of CCP. Then, we study lifting and superadditive lifting on knapsack cover inequalities, and provide an implementable procedure on deriving another family of strong inequalities for the single mixing set. Finally, different from the traditional approach that aggregates original constraints to investigate polyhedral implications due to their interactions, we propose a novel blending procedure that produces strong valid inequalities for CCP by integrating those derived from individual mixing sets. We show that, under certain conditions, they are the first type of facet-defining inequalities describing intersection of multiple mixing sets, and design an efficient separation heuristic for implementation. In the computational experiments, we perform a systematic study and illustrate the efficiency of the proposed inequalities on solving chance constrained static probabilistic lot-sizing problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study a class of chance-constrained two-stage stochastic optimization problems where second-stage feasible recourse decisions incur additional cost. In addition, we propose a new model, where 'recovery' decisions are made for the infeasible scenarios to obtain feasible solutions to a relaxed second-stage problem. We develop decomposition algorithms with specialized optimality and feasibility cuts to solve this class of problems. Computational results on a chance-constrained resource planing problem indicate that our algorithms are highly effective in solving these problems compared to a mixed-integer programming reformulation and a naive decomposition method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present a new approach for exactly solving chance-constrained mathematical programs having discrete distributions with finite support and random polyhedral constraints. Such problems have been notoriously difficult to solve due to nonconvexity of the feasible region, and most available methods are only able to find provably good solutions in certain very special cases. Our approach uses both decomposition, to enable processing subproblems corresponding to one possible outcome at a time, and integer programming techniques, to combine the results of these subproblems to yield strong valid inequalities. Computational results on a chance-constrained formulation of a resource planning problem inspired by a call center staffing application indicate the approach works significantly better than both an existing mixed-integer programming formulation and a simple decomposition approach that does not use strong valid inequalities. We also demonstrate how the approach can be used to efficiently solve for a sequence of risk levels, as would be done when solving for the efficient frontier of risk and cost. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We analyze nonlinear stochastic optimization problems with probabilistic constraints on nonlinear inequalities with random right hand sides. We develop two numerical methods with regularization for their numerical solution. The methods are based on first order optimality conditions and successive inner approximations of the feasible set by progressive generation of p-efficient points. The algorithms yield an optimal solution for problems involving α-concave probability distributions. For arbitrary distributions, the algorithms solve the convex hull problem and provide upper and lower bounds for the optimal value and nearly optimal solutions. The methods are compared numerically to two cutting plane methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We consider risk-averse formulations of stochastic linear programs having a structure that is common in real-life applications. Specifically, the optimization problem corresponds to controlling over a certain horizon a system whose dynamics is given by a transition equation depending affinely on an interstage dependent stochastic process. We put in place a rolling-horizon time consistent policy. For each time step, a risk-averse problem with constraints that are deterministic for the current time step and uncertain for future times is solved. To each uncertain constraint corresponds both a chance and a Conditional Value-at-Risk constraint. We show that the resulting risk-averse problems are numerically tractable, being at worst conic quadratic programs. For the particular case in which uncertainty appears only on the right-hand side of the constraints, such risk-averse problems are linear programs. We show how to write dynamic programming equations for these problems and define robust recourse functions that can be approximated recursively by cutting planes. The methodology is assessed and favourably compared with Stochastic Dual Dynamic Programming on a real size water-resource planning problem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The mixing set with a knapsack constraint arises in deterministic equivalent of chance-constrained programming problems with finite discrete distributions. We first consider the case that the chance-constrained program has equal probabilities for each scenario. We study the resulting mixing set with a cardinality constraint and propose facet-defining inequalities that subsume known explicit inequalities for this set. We extend these inequalities to obtain valid inequalities for the mixing set with a knapsack constraint. In addition, we propose a compact extended reformulation (with polynomial number of variables and constraints) that characterizes a linear programming equivalent of a single chance constraint with equal scenario probabilities. We introduce a blending procedure to find valid inequalities for intersection of multiple mixing sets. We propose a polynomial-size extended formulation for the intersection of multiple mixing sets with a knapsack constraint that is stronger than the original mixing formulation. We also give a compact extended linear program for the intersection of multiple mixing sets and a cardinality constraint for a special case. We illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed inequalities in our computational experiments with probabilistic lot-sizing problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Linear programs with joint probabilistic constraints (PCLP) are difficult to solve because the feasible region is not convex. We consider a special case of PCLP in which only the right-hand side is random and this random vector has a finite distribution. We give a mixed-integer programming formulation for this special case and study the relaxation corresponding to a single row of the probabilistic constraint. We obtain two strengthened formulations. As a byproduct of this analysis, we obtain new results for the previously studied mixing set, subject to an additional knapsack inequality. We present computational results which indicate that by using our strengthened formulations, instances that are considerably larger than have been considered before can be solved to optimality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study perturbations of a stochastic program with a probabilistic constraint and r-concave original probability distribution. First we improve our earlier results substantially and provide conditions implying Hölder continuity properties of the solution sets w.r.t. the Kolmogorov distance of probability distributions. Secondly, we derive an upper Lipschitz continuity property for solution sets under more restrictive conditions on the original program and on the perturbed probability measures. The latter analysis applies to linear-quadratic models and is based on work by Bonnans and Shapiro. The stability results are illustrated by numerical tests showing the different asymptotic behaviour of parametric and nonparametric estimates in a program with a normal probabilistic constraint. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Once subsurface water supplies become contaminated, designing cost-effective and reliable remediation schemes becomes a difficult task. The combination of finite element simulation of groundwater contaminant transport with nonlinear optimization is one approach to determine the best well selection and optimal fluid withdrawal and injection rates to contain and remove the contaminated water. Both deterministic and stochastic programming problems have been formulated and solved. These tend to be large scale problems, owing to the simulation component which serves as a portion of the constraint set. The overall problem of combined groundwater process simulation and nonlinear optimization is discussed along with example problems. Because the contaminant transport simulation models give highly uncertain results, quantifying their uncertainty and incorporating reliability into the remediation design results in a class of large stochastic nonlinear problems. The reliability problem is beginning to be addressed, and some strategies and formulations involving chance constraints and Monte Carlo methods are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]