Realtime control of robots with initial value perturbations via nonlinear programming methods

The mathematical model of an industrial robot with initial value perturbations is considered as a parametric nonlinear control problem subject to control and state constraints. Based on recent stability results for parametric control problems, a robust nonlinear programming method is proposed for computing the sensitivity derivatives of optimal solutions. Real-time control approximations of perturbed optimal solutions are obtained by evaluating a first order Taylor expansion of the perturbed solution. The efficiency of the real-time approximation is demonstrated for the robot model     

An inventory control problem for deteriorating items with back-ordering and financial considerations

This paper investigates the effects of time value of money and inflation on the optimal ordering policy in an inventory control system. We proposed an economic order quantity model to manage a perishable item over the finite horizon planning under which back-ordering and delayed payment are assumed. The demand and deterioration rates are constant. The present value of total cost during the planning horizon in this inventory system is modeled first, then a three phases solution procedure is proposed to derive the optimal order and shortage quantities, and the number of replenishment during the planning horizon. Finally, the proposed model is illustrated through numerical examples and the sensitivity analysis is reported to find some managerial insights.     

Portfolio selection with a minimax measure in safety constraint

In this paper, we attempt to design a portfolio optimization model for investors who desire to minimize the variation around the mean return and at the same time wish to achieve better return than the worst possible return realization at every time point in a single period portfolio investment. The portfolio is to be selected from the risky assets in the equity market. Since the minimax portfolio optimization model provides us with the portfolio that maximizes (minimizes) the worst return (worst loss) realization in the investment horizon period, in order to safeguard the interest of investors, the optimal value of the minimax optimization model is used to design a constraint in the mean-absolute semideviation model. This constraint can be viewed as a safety strategy adopted by an investor. Thus, our proposed bi-objective linear programming model involves mean return as a reward and mean-absolute semideviation as a risk in the objective function and minimax as a safety constraint, which enables a trade off between return and risk with a fixed safety value. The efficient frontier of the model is generated using the augmented -constraint method on the GAMS software. We simultaneously solve the ratio optimization problem which maximizes the ratio of mean return over mean-absolute semideviation with same minimax value in the safety constraint. Subsequently, we choose two portfolios on the above generated efficient frontier such that the risk from one of them is less and the mean return from other portfolio is more than the respective quantities of the optimal portfolio from the ratio optimization model. Extensive computational results and in-sample and out-of-sample analysis are provided to compare the financial performance of the optimal portfolios selected by our proposed model with that of the optimal portfolios from the existing minimax and mean-absolute semideviation portfolio optimization models on real data from S&P CNX Nifty index.     

Routing,ship size,and sailing frequency decision-making for a maritime hub-and-spoke container network

This study formulates a two-objective model to determine the optimal liner routing, ship size, and sailing frequency for container carriers by minimizing shipping costs and inventory costs. First, shipping and inventory cost functions are formulated using an analytical method. Then, based on a trade-off between shipping costs and inventory costs, Pareto optimal solutions of the two-objective model are determined. Not only can the optimal ship size and sailing frequency be determined for any route, but also the routing decision on whether to route containers through a hub or directly to their destination can be made in objective value space. Finally, the theoretical findings are applied to a case study, with highly reasonable results. The results show that the optimal routing, ship size, and sailing frequency with respect to each level of inventory costs and shipping costs can be determined using the proposed model. The optimal routing decision tends to be shipping the cargo through a hub as the hub charge is decreased or its efficiency improved. In addition, the proposed model not only provides a tool to analyze the trade-off between shipping costs and inventory costs, but it also provides flexibility on the decision-making for container carriers.     

Management of on-farm agricultural wastes for energy and food recovery

The increasing demands placed on finite supplies of energy and food make it imperative to find alternative, unconventional resources, to replace oil and animal proteins. Agricultural wastes, given proper treatment, prove to be a potentially exploitable resource. Integrated treatment of the family and farmyard wastes on the farm has environmental as well as economic advantages.A management model of a combined on-farm treatment system (COFTS) is presented. The model provides guidelines for optimal layout and performance of the proposed on-farm integrated systems. It includes design parameters such as the geometry of the system, dimensions, designed flow rates, and control variables such as retention times, loading, and mixing rate. The model is based on the definition of a non-linear objective function, expressing the net profit of the proposed system. The optimal value was found subject to non-linear constraints indicating the availability of the various resources and physical limitations.     

Optimal pricing and ordering policy for non-instantaneous deteriorating items under inflation and customer returns

This paper deals with an economic production quantity inventory model for non-instantaneous deteriorating items under inflationary conditions considering customer returns. We adopt a price- and time-dependent demand function. Also, the customer returns are considered as a function of both price and demand. The effects of time value of money are studied using the Discounted Cash Flow approach. The main objective is to determine the optimal selling price, the optimal replenishment cycles, and the optimal production quantity simultaneously such that the present value of total profit is maximized. An efficient algorithm is presented to find the optimal solution. Finally, numerical examples are provided to solve the presented inventory model using our proposed algorithm, which is further clarified through a sensitivity analysis. The results of analysing customer returns provide important suggestions to financial managers who use price as a control to match the quantity sold to inventory while maximizing revenues. The paper ends with a conclusion and an outlook to future studies.     

Stochastic optimal budget decision for advertising considering uncertain sales responses

Firms are faced with uncertain sales responses even though they advertise appropriately. To help marketing managers make optimal budget decisions in this situation, we develop a stochastic model, depicting the problem of advertising budget decision as a special Markov decision process where a new objective, maximizing expected market utility, is proposed. In the model we introduce a two-dimension state variable including accumulative sales, which vary randomly with advertising budget, and the predicted probability that an advertising campaign obtains a full sales response. We make an analysis of the model on the premise of growing infinite market potential, deriving the property of optimal policies and that of optimal value function. These results are successfully used to make advertising budget decisions for a private university in Xi’an, China.     

风险收益不对等条件下中国对外直接投资合作模式的优化

针对对外直接投资所面临的资金短缺、进展不顺利的问题,在风险分担理论的基础上构建中国政府、东道国政府和社会资本的投资合作模型。目的在于设计出足够吸引社会资本投入,且保证中国对外直接投资顺利开展的风险分担模式。并通过数值模拟风险分担比例和利润分享比例对投资时机和投资价值的影响,证明了中国政府与社会资本间存在最优的风险分担比例,以及东道国政府与社会资本存在最优利润分享比例。     

面向医疗纠纷风险的多属性空间专家群体评判研究

为尽可能地规避医疗纠纷风险,通过专家群体评判医疗机构存在的医患之间潜在风险,以期到达控制风险的端口前移.建立了拓展后的空间Steiner点为专家群体最优集结模型,并应用PGSA方法对其进行求解,以获取最优集结点.将集结点值表示成由等级值s_i和距离等级最近的偏差α_i所构成的二元语义(s_i,α_i).通过线性加权得到待评医疗机构的评价值,并进行排序.在算例分析中,完整地运用了该论文提出的方法,得出了最优集结点及评判结果,从而破解了多属性空间专家群体最优集结的难题,为医疗纠纷风险评判问题的研究,提供了一种新的方法.     

Mathematical modeling and trajectory planning of mobile manipulators with flexible links and joints

This paper is concerned with mathematical modeling and optimal motion designing of flexible mobile manipulators. The system is composed of a multiple flexible links and flexible revolute joints manipulator mounted on a mobile platform. First, analyzing on kinematics and dynamics of the model is carried out then; open-loop optimal control approach is presented for optimal motion designing of the system. The problem is known to be complex since combined motion of the base and manipulator, non-holonomic constraint of the base and highly non-linear and complicated dynamic equations as a result of the flexible nature of both links and joints are taken into account. In the proposed method, the generalized coordinates and additional kinematic constraints are selected in such a way that the base motion coordination along the predefined path is guaranteed while the optimal motion trajectory of the end-effector is generated. This method by using Pontryagin’s minimum principle and deriving the optimality conditions converts the optimal control problem into a two point boundary value problem. A comparative assessment of the dynamic model is validated through computer simulations, and then additional simulations are done for trajectory planning of a two-link flexible mobile manipulator to demonstrate effectiveness and capability of the proposed approach.     

基于随机动态规划的有限库存ATO系统优化控制

本文研究n维组件单一产品,有限库存的ATO系统。通过建立马尔可夫决策过程模型(MDP),构造优化算法,研究组件生产与库存的最优控制策略。最优策路可以表示为状态依赖型库存阈值,系统内任一组件的控制策略受其它组件库存状态的影响。利用最优控制理论动态规划方法和数值计算方法对最优控制策略的存在性、最优值的数值计算进行研究,建立更符合实际生产的ATO系统决策模型,进行相应的理论和实验验证,研究系统参数对最优策略的影响。     

A two-warehouse partial backlogging inventory model for deteriorating items with permissible delay in payment under inflation

In the business transactions, the supplier usually offers a permissible delay in payment to his retailer to attract more sales. In addition, a permissible delay in payment may be applied as an alternative to price discount. Based on the above phenomena, we incorporate a permissible delay in payment into the model of Yang [1] and develop a two-warehouse partial backlogging inventory model for deteriorating items with permissible delay in payment under inflation. The objective of this study is to derive the retailer’s optimal replenishment policy that maximizes the net present value of the profit per unit time. The necessary and sufficient conditions for an optimal solution are characterized. An algorithm is developed to find the optimal solution. Finally, numerical examples are provided to illustrate the proposed model. Sensitivity analysis is made and some managerial implications are presented.     

Reliability based assignment in stochastic-flow freight network

Based on the reliability of transportation time, a transportation assignment model of stochastic-flow freight network is designed in this paper. This transportation assignment model is built by mean of stochastic chance-constraint programming and solved with a hybrid intelligent algorithm (HIA) which integrates genetic algorithm (GA), stochastic simulation (SS) and neural network (NN). GA is employed to report the optimal solution as well as the optimal objective function values of the proposed model. SS is used to simulate the value of uncertain system reliability function. The uncertain function approximated via NN is embedded into GA to check the feasibility and to compute the fitness of the chromosomes. These conclusions have been drawn after a test of numerical case using the proposed formulations. System reliability, total system cost and flow on each path would finally reach at their own convergence points. Increase of the system reliability causes increase of the total time cost. The system reliability and the total time cost converge at a possible Nash Equilibrium point.     

Optimal Contract Design of Supplier-Led Outsourcing Based on Pontryagin Maximum Principle

This paper provides a supplier-led outsourcing model to maximize the supplier’s profits based on a principal-agent framework with both asymmetric cost information and uncertain market demand information described by continuous random variables. The salvage value of the unsold product is processing-cost dependent. By converting the proposed model, which is a dynamic optimization problem, to an optimal control problem, we obtain the analytical form of the optimal supplier outsourcing contract composed of the wholesale price and the transfer payment by applying Pontryagin’s maximum principle. It is shown that the optimal contract is directly related to the supplier’s beliefs about the manufacturer’s unit cost and the salvage value function. The Pontryagin’s maximum principle-based solution method serves as a powerful tool to support the decision making for the best sourcing strategy, and it provides analytical insights for outsourcing management. Finally, numerical examples are presented to illustrate the validness of the theoretical results.     

基于动态VaR约束与随机波动率模型的最优投资策略

研究Stein-Stein随机波动率模型下带动态VaR约束的最优投资组合选择问题. 假设投资者的目标是最大化终端财富的期望幂效用,可投资于无风险资产和一种风险资产, 风险资产的价格过程由Stein-Stein随机波动率模型刻画. 同时, 投资者期望能在投资过程中利用动态VaR约束控制所面对的风险.运用Bellman动态规划方法和Lagrange乘子法, 得到了该约束问题最优策略的解析式及特殊情形下最优值函数的解析式; 并通过理论分析和数值算例, 阐述了动态VaR约束与随机波动率对最优投资策略的影响.     

线性分式规划优化分析的元模型方法

1引言线性分式规划(LFP): min f(x)=(p~Tx α)/(q~Tx β) s.t. Ax=b (1) x≥0有着重要的应用背景,特别在经济管理中受到广泛关注．例如,以净收益率为优化目标函数的海洋运输问题;当价格系数为随机变量时,优化目标为获得满意的收益水平概率最大的资源分配问题等[11]．线性分式规划是一类特殊的非线性规划,除一般的非线性规划求解方法外,它还有一些特殊的专用算法．这里,我们要考虑的问题是;当右端资源约束向量在一定范围内(即L≤b≤U,L,U分别为b的下界和上界)变化时,目标函数的最优值如何变化?我们把这一问题称之为线性分式规划的优化分析．     

Portfolio selection problem with liquidity constraints under non-extensive statistical mechanics

In this study, we consider the optimal portfolio selection problem with liquidity limits. A portfolio selection model is proposed in which the risky asset price is driven by the process based on non-extensive statistical mechanics instead of the classic Wiener process. Using dynamic programming and Lagrange multiplier methods, we obtain the optimal policy and value function. Moreover, the numerical results indicate that this model is considerably different from the model based on the classic Wiener process, the optimal strategy is affected by the non-extensive parameter q, the increase in the investment in the risky asset is faster at a larger parameter q and the increase in wealth is similar.     

An iterative procedure for solving integral equations related to optimal stopping problems

We present an iterative algorithm for computing values of optimal stopping problems for one-dimensional diffusions on finite time intervals. The method is based on a time discretization of the initial model and a construction of discretized analogues of the associated integral equation for the value function. The proposed iterative procedure converges in a finite number of steps and delivers in each step a lower or an upper bound for the discretized value function on the whole time interval. We also give remarks on applications of the method for solving the integral equations related to several optimal stopping problems.     

基于模糊遗传算法的自融资有效投资组合研究

在马克维茨投资组合的均值一方差模型框架下,给出限制投资数量的自融资投资组合优化模型.把预期收益率不等式约束转化为模糊约束,采用一种通过惩罚因子,对适应度函数进行修正的模糊遗传算法来求解模型.在理论上,这种算法能够将最优基因较完整地遗传到下一代,有效地避免了早熟现象,可以得到更好的适应度函数值.在实际应用中,对一具体自融资有效投资组合实例进行计算,结果表明:本文所提出的模糊遗传算法是可行的、有效的,具有更好的优化结果.     

Pricing and strategy selection in a closed-loop supply chain under demand and return rate uncertainty

Closed-loop supply chain (CLSC) decision-making involves many uncertainties, which makes the decision-making process more complex and diversified. This study considered a two-stage CLSC consisting of an original manufacturer and a third-party recycler. Without any government policy support, considering the effects of market demand, product return rate, and consumer perceived value, a CLSC decision model based on market demand with a [0,1] distribution was established. The model analyzes three situations—a manufacturer monopoly, the Cournot duopoly game, and the Stackelberg competition game—and solves them. The optimal values of decision variables such as optimal pricing, market demand, and all parties’ profits in the CLSC are obtained, and a strict mathematical proof is given. Through the model-solving process, the effects of product return rate and consumer perceived value on decision variables are analyzed; then, the profit allocation between the original manufacturer and the third-party recycler under different cooperation modes is analyzed. In addition, the four combinations of competition and cooperation are analyzed based on game theory. The Nash equilibrium solution and Pareto optimal solution of the four modes are analyzed by drawing a bimatrix Nash equilibrium table. The results indicate that the cooperation–cooperation mode is difficult to produce automatically, and government policy guidance and support are often needed to achieve Pareto optimality. Finally, a numerical example is given to validate the proposed model. In this way, the proposed model provides reliable theoretical support for the decision-making of both sides in a CLSC.