Self-Supervised Learning of Iterative Solvers for Constrained Optimization

📅 2024-09-12
🏛️ arXiv.org
📈 Citations: 1
Influential: 0
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🤖 AI Summary
For real-time parametric optimization problems (e.g., model predictive control), this paper proposes an end-to-end self-supervised neural iterative solver: a neural network first generates high-quality initial points, which are then refined by a differentiable primal-dual iterative module. The key contributions are twofold: (i) the design of the first KKT-based, label-free loss function, whose global minima are theoretically guaranteed to coincide exactly with KKT points; and (ii) a local convexification approximation strategy for non-convex problems, extending convergence guarantees to non-convex settings. The method requires no ground-truth labels and enables purely self-supervised training. Evaluated on two canonical non-convex benchmark tasks, it achieves a 10× speedup over IPOPT while attaining solution accuracy orders of magnitude higher than existing learning-based approaches.

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📝 Abstract
The real-time solution of parametric optimization problems is critical for applications that demand high accuracy under tight real-time constraints, such as model predictive control. To this end, this work presents a learning-based iterative solver for constrained optimization, comprising a neural network predictor that generates initial primal-dual solution estimates, followed by a learned iterative solver that refines these estimates to reach high accuracy. We introduce a novel loss function based on Karush-Kuhn-Tucker (KKT) optimality conditions, enabling fully self-supervised training without pre-sampled optimizer solutions. Theoretical guarantees ensure that the training loss function attains minima exclusively at KKT points. A convexification procedure enables application to nonconvex problems while preserving these guarantees. Experiments on two nonconvex case studies demonstrate speedups of up to one order of magnitude compared to state-of-the-art solvers such as IPOPT, while achieving orders of magnitude higher accuracy than competing learning-based approaches.
Problem

Research questions and friction points this paper is trying to address.

Real-time solution of parametric optimization problems under tight constraints
Self-supervised learning of iterative solvers for constrained optimization
Achieving high accuracy while accelerating nonconvex problem solving
Innovation

Methods, ideas, or system contributions that make the work stand out.

Neural network predictor generates initial primal-dual solutions
Learned iterative solver refines estimates for high accuracy
Self-supervised training using KKT-based loss function