Finding local optima of high-dimensional functions using direct search methods

Lars Magnus Hvattum and Fred Glover

European Journal of Operational Research, 2009, vol. 195, issue 1, 31-45

Abstract: This paper focuses on a subclass of box-constrained, non-linear optimization problems. We are particularly concerned with settings where gradient information is unreliable, or too costly to calculate, and the function evaluations themselves are very costly. This encourages the use of derivative free optimization methods, and especially a subclass of these referred to as direct search methods. The thrust of our investigation is twofold. First, we implement and evaluate a number of traditional direct search methods according to the premise that they should be suitable as local optimizers when used in a metaheuristic framework. Second, we introduce a new direct search method, based on Scatter Search, designed to remedy the lack of a good derivative free method for solving problems of high dimensions. Our new direct search method has convergence properties comparable to those of existing methods in addition to being able to solve larger problems more effectively.

Keywords: Non-linear; optimization; Local; minimum; Derivative; free; Direct; search; Scatter; Search (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2009
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0377-2217(08)00171-9
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:ejores:v:195:y:2009:i:1:p:31-45

Access Statistics for this article

European Journal of Operational Research is currently edited by Roman Slowinski, Jesus Artalejo, Jean-Charles. Billaut, Robert Dyson and Lorenzo Peccati

More articles in European Journal of Operational Research from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().