Decision Optimization

Originally posted by: FizzaCees

Hello.

I am trying to maximize a function that involves a negatively impacting term, Q:
Max (A - B - C  .. - Q);

Where, A, B, C .. Q are different terms in the objective function that are dependent on decision variables. x1, x2, ... xn (non-negative)I also have the initial positions for the decision variables represented by p1,p2, ... pn and constant values c1,c2, ... cn.

As per my understanding, whether c is positive or negative I have split the decision variables vector x  into two groups (Positive set and Negative set) and calculated the following:

P = sum(j in Postive set)
                                     mypwl(pj -xj) *cj
N = sum(j in Negative set)
                                     mypwl(pj -xj) *cj

Q is defined as:
Q =  P+N + Switch;

Where, mypwl is a piece-wise function defined as follows:

pwlFunction mypwl=piecewise{0->0; 0->0; 1};

Intuitively, I would like to penalize the positive values under all circumstances, and give preference to negative values or "switch them off" under specific circumstances (e.g. sum of P and N is less than zero)

Here, Switch is a decision variable which can either be zero OR equal to - N, bounded through constraints as follows:
constraint_1 :(P+N >= 0) => (Switch == 0);
constraint_2 :!(P+N >= 0) => (Switch == -N); //(negation constraint)

I am trying to continue to penalize positive values but stop the preference for negative values when N>P (this is achieved through constraint_2).
However, this seems to be an incorrect implementation of the problem I am trying to model. To explain this, let's go over an example :

If N= -400 and P =200
then
Q = 200 +(-400) + 400 = 200

Increasing the value of P will increase the value of Q until P>N at which point the switch will revert to a value of 0 and Q = 401 -400 =1.
This would incentivize the optimization to target a Q value of 0 rather than letting the expressions A,B, C .. take control of the optimization.
I believe the implementation can be improved by fixing the value of N when P==N, rather than using switch however I am unsure as to how one can achieve this. Please advise on how to achieve this, any alternate solution to achieve the same outcome would also be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

Hi,

in order to help with the initial positions you could use warm start :

https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/community/forums/html/topic?id=75766584-44c5-4400-977f-03363feea776

About your switches, why not using logical constraints ?

You are allowed to write

constraint_1 :(P+N >= 0) => (Switch == 0);
constraint_2 :!(P+N >= 0) => (Switch == -N); //(negation constraint)

regards

Originally posted by: FizzaCees

Thank you for the response!

As you said:

You are allowed to write

constraint_1 :(P+N >= 0) => (Switch == 0);
constraint_2 :!(P+N >= 0) => (Switch == -N); //(negation constraint)

I am actually using these constraints just like I mentioned in my post, however, it does not yield the results I require (penalizing positives in all scenarios). 

Any help with this would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance!