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This paper presents an overview of the Burer-Monteiro method (BM), a technique that has been applied to solve robot perception problems to certifiable optimality in real-time. BM is often used to solve semidefinite programming relaxations, which can be used to perform global optimization for non-convex perception problems. Specifically, BM leverages the low-rank structure of typical semidefinite programs to dramatically reduce the computational cost of performing optimization. This paper discusses BM in certifiable perception, with three main objectives: (i) to consolidate information from the literature into a unified presentation, (ii) to elucidate the role of the linear independence constraint qualification (LICQ), a concept not yet well-covered in certifiable perception literature, and (iii) to share practical considerations that are discussed among practitioners but not thoroughly covered in the literature. Our general aim is to offer a practical primer for applying BM towards certifiable perception., Comment: Accepted to 2024 Robotics: Science and Systems (RSS) Safe Autonomy Workshop

This work proposes a framework of benchmark functions designed to facilitate the creation of test cases for numerical optimisation techniques. The framework, written in Python 3, is designed to be easy to install, use, and expand. The collection includes some of the most used multi-modal continuous functions present in literature, which can be instantiated using an arbitrary number of dimensions. Meta-information of each benchmark function, like search boundaries and position of known optima, are included and made easily accessible through class methods. Built-in interactive visualisation capabilities, baseline techniques, and rigorous testing protocols complement the features of the framework. The framework can be found here: \url{https://gitlab.com/luca.baronti/python_benchmark_functions, Comment: 7 pages, 2 figures