In this thesis, optimization approaches for intensity-modulated radiation therapy are developed and evaluated with focus on numerical efficiency and treatment delivery aspects. The first two papers deal with strategies for solving fluence map optimization problems efficiently while avoiding solutions with jagged fluence profiles. The last two papers concern optimization of step-and-shoot parameters with emphasis on generating treatment plans that can be delivered efficiently and accurately. In the first paper, the problem dimension of a fluence map optimization problem is reduced through a spectral decomposition of the Hessian of the objective function. The weights of the eigenvectors corresponding to the p largest eigenvalues are introduced as optimization variables, and the impact on the solution of varying p is studied. Including only a few eigenvector weights results in faster initial decrease of the objective value, but with an inferior solution, compared to optimization of the bixel weights. An approach combining eigenvector weights and bixel weights produces improved solutions, but at the expense of the pre-computational time for the spectral decomposition. So-called iterative regularization is performed on fluence map optimization problems in the second paper. The idea is to find regular solutions by utilizing an optimization method that is able to find near-optimal solutions with non-jagged fluence profiles in few iterations. The suitability of a quasi-Newton sequential quadratic programming method is demonstrated by comparing the treatment quality of deliverable step-and-shoot plans, generated through leaf sequencing with a fixed number of segments, for different number of bixel-weight iterations. A conclusion is that over-optimization of the fluence map optimization problem prior to leaf sequencing should be avoided. An approach for dynamically generating multileaf collimator segments using a column generation approach combined with optimization of segment shapes and weights is presented in the third paper. Numerical results demonstrate that the adjustment of leaf positions improves the plan quality and that satisfactory treatment plans are found with few segments. The method provides a tool for exploring the trade-off between plan quality and treatment complexity by generating a sequence of deliverable plans of increasing quality. The final paper is devoted to understanding the ability of the column generation approach in the third paper to find near-optimal solutions with very few columns compared to the problem dimension. The impact of different restrictions on the generated columns is studied, both in terms of numerical behaviour and convergence properties. A bound on the two-norm of the columns results in the conjugate-gradient method. Numerical results indicate that the appealing properties of the conjugate-gradient method on ill-conditioned problems are inherited in the column generation approach of the third paper. / QC 20100709

Multivariate adaptive regression spline (MARS) denotes a modern methodology from statistical learning which is very important in both classification and regression, with an increasing number of applications in many areas of science, economy and technology. MARS is very useful for high dimensional problems and shows a great promise for fitting nonlinear multivariate functions. MARS technique does not impose any particular class of relationship between the predictor variables and outcome variable of interest. In other words, a special advantage of MARS lies in its ability to estimate the contribution of the basis functions so that both the additive and interaction effects of the predictors are allowed to determine the response variable. The function fitted by MARS is continuous, whereas the one fitted by classical classification methods (CART) is not. Herewith, MARS becomes an alternative to CART. The MARS algorithm for estimating the model function consists of two complementary algorithms: the forward and backward stepwise algorithms. In the first step, the model is built by adding basis functions until a maximum level of complexity is reached. On the other hand, the backward stepwise algorithm is began by removing the least significant basis functions from the model. In this study, we propose not to use the backward stepwise algorithm. Instead, we construct a penalized residual sum of squares (PRSS) for MARS as a Tikhonov regularization problem, which is also known as ridge regression. We treat this problem using continuous optimization techniques which we consider to become an important complementary technology and alternative to the concept of the backward stepwise algorithm. In particular, we apply the elegant framework of conic quadratic programming which is an area of convex optimization that is very well-structured, herewith, resembling linear programming and, hence, permitting the use of interior point methods. The boundaries of this optimization problem are determined by the multiobjective optimization approach which provides us many alternative solutions. Based on these theoretical and algorithmical studies, this MSc thesis work also contains applications on the data investigated in a T&Uuml / BiTAK project on quality control. By these applications, MARS and our new method are compared.

In this thesis, we study and use Conic Quadratic Programming (CQP) for purposes of operational research, especially, for quality improvement in manufacturing. In previous works, the importance and benefit of CQP in this area became already demonstrated. There, the complexity of the regression method Multivariate Adaptive Regression Spline (MARS), which especially means sensitivity with respect to noise in the data, became penalized in the form of so-called Tikhonov regularization, which became expressed and studied as a CQP problem. This was leading to the new method CMARS / it is more model-based and employs continuous, actually, well-structured convex optimization which enables the use of Interior Point Methods and their codes such as MOSEK. In this study, we are generalizing the regression problem by including uncertainty in the model, especially, in the input data, too. CMARS, recently developed as an alternative method to MARS, is powerful in overcoming complex and heterogeneous data. However, for MARS and CMARS method, data are assumed to contain fixed variables. In fact, data include noise in both output and input variables. Consequently, optimization problem&rsquo / s solutions can show a remarkable sensitivity to perturbations in the parameters of the problem. In this study, we include the existence of uncertainty in the future scenarios into CMARS and robustify it with robust optimization which is dealt with data uncertainty. That kind of optimization was introduced by Aharon Ben-Tal and Arkadi Nemirovski, and used by Laurent El Ghaoui in the area of data mining. It incorporates various kinds of noise and perturbations into the programming problem. This robustification of CQP with robust optimization is compared with previous contributions that based on Tikhonov regularization, and with the traditional MARS method.

This thesis addresses the challenges in the efficient and robust generation and optimization of three-dimensional landing trajectories for fixed-wing aircraft subject to prescribed boundary conditions and constraints on maneuverability and collision avoidance. In particular, this thesis focuses on the airliner emergency landing scenario and the minimization of landing time. The main contribution of the thesis is two-fold. First, it provides a hierarchical scheme for integrating the complementary strength of a variety of methods in path planning and trajectory optimization for the improvement in efficiency and robustness of the overall landing trajectory optimization algorithm. The second contribution is the development of new techniques and results in mesh refinement for numerical optimal control, optimal path tracking, and smooth path generation, which are all integrated in a hierarchical scheme and applied to the landing trajectory optimization problem. A density function based grid generation method is developed for the mesh refinement process during numerical optimal control. A numerical algorithm is developed based on this technique for solving general optimal control problems, and is used for optimizing aircraft landing trajectories. A path smoothing technique is proposed for recovering feasibility of the path and improving the tracking performance by modifying the path geometry. The optimal aircraft path tracking problem is studied and analytical results are presented for both the minimum-time, and minimum-energy tracking with fixed time of arrival. The path smoothing and optimal path tracking methods work together with the geometric path planner to provide a set of feasible initial guess to the numerical optimal control algorithm. The trajectory optimization algorithm in this thesis was tested by simulation experiments using flight data from two previous airliner accidents under emergency landing scenarios.The real-time application of the landing trajectory optimization algorithm as part of the aircraft on-board automation avionics system has the potential to provide effective guidelines to the pilots for improving the fuel consumption during normal landing process, and help enhancing flight safety under emergency landing scenarios. The proposed algorithms can also help design optimal take-off and landing trajectories and procedures for airports.

A class of Lagrange-Newton-SQP methods is investigated for optimal control problems governed by semilinear parabolic initial- boundary value problems. Distributed and boundary controls are given, restricted by pointwise upper and lower bounds. The convergence of the method is discussed in appropriate Banach spaces. Based on a weak second order sufficient optimality condition for the reference solution, local quadratic convergence is proved. The proof is based on the theory of Newton methods for generalized equations in Banach spaces.

The design of nearly linear-phase recursive digital filters using constrained optimization is investigated. The design technique proposed is expected to be useful in applications where both magnitude and phase response specifications need to be satisfied. The overall constrained optimization method is formulated as a quadratic programming problem based on Newton’s method. The objective function, its gradient vector and Hessian matrix as well as a set of linear constraints are derived. In this analysis, the independent variables are assumed to be the transfer function coefficients. The filter stability issue and convergence efficiency, as well as a ‘real axis attraction’ problem are solved by integrating the corresponding bounds into the linear constraints of the optimization method. Also, two initialization techniques for providing efficient starting points for the optimization are investigated and the relation between the zero and pole positions and the group delay are examined. Based on these ideas, a new objective function is formulated in terms of the zeros and poles of the transfer function expressed in polar form and integrated into the optimization process. The coefficient-based and polar-based objective functions are tested and compared and it is shown that designs using the polar-based objective function produce improved results. Finally, several other modern methods for the design of nearly linear-phase recursive filters are compared with the proposed method. These include an elliptic design combined with an optimal equalization technique that uses a prescribed group delay, an optimal design method with robust stability using conic-quadratic-programming updates, and an unconstrained optimization technique that uses parameterization to guarantee filter stability. It was found that the proposed method generates similar or improved results in all comparative examples suggesting that the new method is an attractive alternative for linear-phase recursive filters of orders up to about 30.

The design of nearly linear-phase recursive digital filters using constrained optimization is investigated. The design technique proposed is expected to be useful in applications where both magnitude and phase response specifications need to be satisfied. The overall constrained optimization method is formulated as a quadratic programming problem based on Newton’s method. The objective function, its gradient vector and Hessian matrix as well as a set of linear constraints are derived. In this analysis, the independent variables are assumed to be the transfer function coefficients. The filter stability issue and convergence efficiency, as well as a ‘real axis attraction’ problem are solved by integrating the corresponding bounds into the linear constraints of the optimization method. Also, two initialization techniques for providing efficient starting points for the optimization are investigated and the relation between the zero and pole positions and the group delay are examined. Based on these ideas, a new objective function is formulated in terms of the zeros and poles of the transfer function expressed in polar form and integrated into the optimization process. The coefficient-based and polar-based objective functions are tested and compared and it is shown that designs using the polar-based objective function produce improved results. Finally, several other modern methods for the design of nearly linear-phase recursive filters are compared with the proposed method. These include an elliptic design combined with an optimal equalization technique that uses a prescribed group delay, an optimal design method with robust stability using conic-quadratic-programming updates, and an unconstrained optimization technique that uses parameterization to guarantee filter stability. It was found that the proposed method generates similar or improved results in all comparative examples suggesting that the new method is an attractive alternative for linear-phase recursive filters of orders up to about 30.

Nous observons ces dernières années un besoin grandissant dans l’industrie pour des robots capables d’interagir et de coopérer dans des environnements confinés. Cependant, aujourd’hui encore, la définition de trajectoires sûres pour les robots industriels doit être faite manuellement par l’utilisateur et le logiciel ne dispose que de peu d’autonomie pour réagir aux modifications de l’environnement. Cette thèse vise à produire une structure logicielle innovante pour gérer l’évitement d’obstacles en temps réel pour des robots manipulateurs évoluant dans des environnements dynamiques. Nous avons développé pour cela un algorithme temps réel de génération de trajectoires qui supprime de façon automatique l’étape fastidieuse de définition d’une trajectoire sûre pour le robot.La valeur ajoutée de cette thèse réside dans le fait que nous intégrons le problème de contrôle optimal dans le concept de hiérarchie de tâches pour résoudre un problème d’optimisation non-linéaire efficacement et en temps réel sur un système embarqué aux ressources limitées. Notre approche utilise une commande prédictive (MPC) qui non seulement améliore la réactivité de notre système mais présente aussi l’avantage de pouvoir produire une bonne approximation linéaire des contraintes d’évitement de collision. La stratégie de contrôle présentée dans cette thèse a été validée à l’aide de plusieurs expérimentations en simulations et sur systèmes réels. Les résultats démontrent l’efficacité, la réactivité et la robustesse de cette nouvelle structure de contrôle lorsqu’elle est utilisée dans des environnements dynamiques. / In the field of industrial robots, there is a growing need for having cooperative robots that interact with each other and share work spaces. Currently, industrial robotic systems still rely on hard coded motions with limited ability to react autonomously to dynamic changes in the environment. This thesis focuses on providing a novel framework to deal with real-time collision avoidance for robots performing tasks in a dynamic environment. We develop a reactive trajectory generation algorithm that reacts in real time, removes the fastidious optimization process which is traditionally executed by hand by handling it automatically, and provides a practical way of generating locally time optimal solutions.The novelty in this thesis is in the way we integrate the proposed time optimality problem in a task priority framework to solve a nonlinear optimization problem efficiently in real time using an embedded system with limited resources. Our approach is applied in a Model Predictive Control (MPC) setting, which not only improves reactivity of the system but presents a possibility to obtain accurate local linear approximations of the collision avoidance constraint. The control strategies presented in this thesis have been validated through various simulations and real-world robot experiments. The results demonstrate the effectiveness of the new control structure and its reactivity and robustness when working in dynamic environments.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-12-08T17:19:19Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Danilo Guth.pdf: 5524444 bytes, checksum: 0d000481efd76a74f714599b9ac7f404 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-08-24 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / Inspirados por materiais encontrados na natureza, pesquisadores têm estudado a utilização de materiais celulares em diversas aplicações como biomedicina, engenharia aeroespacial e militar. O ganho em relação ao material base é a excelente relação entre peso e propriedades diversas como: rigidez ao cisalhamento; condutividade térmica/elétrica; absorção de impacto, ruído e vibrações. Uma classe específica são os materiais constituídos por células treliçadas. Estes possuem estrutura periódica, formada por células-base constituídas de barras distribuídas espacialmente no domínio da célula. Modernos processos de fabricação vêm viabilizando a confecção das células em escalas micro e nanométricas. Técnicas para obtenção de novas configurações são objeto de diversos estudos que buscam obter estruturas ótimas para uma dada função multiobjetivo. O presente trabalho implementa o uso de programação quadrática sequencial para a obtenção de células-base otimizadas para funções termomecânicas incluindo a maximização do módulo de cisalhamento, módulo volumétrico, coeficiente de Poisson e condutividade térmica, permitindo a inclusão de restrições de isotropia. A determinação das propriedades macroscópicas é obtida através do método da homogeneização. Diversos resultados são obtidos para os casos bidimensional e tridimensional.

Notre objectif dans cette thèse est de résoudre un problème quadratique binaire sous contraintes mixtes par les techniques d'optimisation DC. Puisque l'optimisation DC a prouvé son efficacité pour résoudre des problèmes de grandes tailles dans différents domaines, nous avons décidé d'appliquer cette approche d'optimisation pour résoudre ce problème. La partie la plus importante de l'optimisation DC est le choix d'une décomposition adéquate qui facilite la détermination et accélère la convergence de deux suites construites. La première suite converge vers la solution optimale du problème primal et la seconde converge vers la solution optimale du problème dual. Dans cette thèse, nous proposons deux décompositions DC efficaces et simples à manipuler. L'application de l'algorithme DC (DCA) nous conduit à résoudre à chaque itération un problème quadratique convexe avec des contraintes mixtes, linéaires et quadratiques. Pour cela, il faut trouver une méthode efficace et rapide pour résoudre ce dernier problème à chaque itération. Pour cela, nous appliquons trois méthodes différentes: la méthode de Newton, la programmation semi-définie positive et la méthode de points intérieurs. Nous présentons les résultats numériques comparatifs sur les mêmes repères de ces trois approches pour justifier notre choix de la méthode la plus rapide pour résoudre efficacement ce problème. / Our objective in this work is to solve a binary quadratic problem under mixed constraints by the techniques of DC optimization. As DC optimization has proved its efficiency to solve large-scale problems in different domains, we decided to apply this optimization approach to solve this problem. The most important part of D.C. optimization is the choice of an adequate decomposition that facilitates determination and speeds convergence of two constructed suites where the first converges to the optimal solution of the primal problem and the second converges to the optimal solution of the dual problem. In this work, we propose two efficient decompositions and simple to manipulate. The application of the DC Algorithm (DCA) leads us to solve at each iteration a convex quadratic problem with mixed, linear and quadratic constraints. For it, we must find an efficient and fast method to solve this last problem at each iteration. To do this, we apply three different methods: the Newton method, the semidefinite programing and interior point method. We present the comparative numerical results on the same benchmarks of these three approaches to justify our choice of the fastest method to effectively solve this problem.