Title
Improving the convergence rate of the DIRECT global optimization algorithm.
Abstract
DIRECT is derivative-free global-search algorithm has been found to perform robustly across a wide variety of low-dimensional test problems. The reason DIRECT's robustness is its lack of algorithmic parameters that need be \"tuned\" to make the algorithm perform well. In particular, there is no parameter that determines the relative emphasis on global versus local search. Unfortunately, the same algorithmic features that enable DIRECT to perform so robustly have a negative side effect. In particular, DIRECT is usually quick to get close to the global minimum, but very slow to refine the solution to high accuracy. This is what we call DIRECT's \"eventually inefficient behavior.\" In this paper, we outline two root causes for this undesirable behavior and propose modifications to eliminate it. The paper builds upon our previously published \"MrDIRECT\" algorithm, which we can now show only addressed the first root cause of the \"eventually inefficient behavior.\" The key contribution of the current paper is a further enhancement that allows MrDIRECT to address the second root cause as well. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the enhanced MrDIRECT, we have identified a set of test functions that highlight different situations in which DIRECT has convergence issues. Extensive numerical work with this test suite demonstrates that the enhanced version of MrDIRECT does indeed improve the convergence rate of DIRECT.
Year
DOI
Venue
2017
10.1007/s10898-016-0447-z
J. Global Optimization
Keywords
Field
DocType
Global optimization,Multilevel algorithm,DIRECT algorithm,MrDIRECT algorithm,Convergence rate
Test suite,Convergence (routing),Mathematical optimization,Global optimization algorithm,Global optimization,Robustness (computer science),Rate of convergence,Local search (optimization),Root cause,Mathematics
Journal
Volume
Issue
ISSN
67
4
0925-5001
Citations 
PageRank 
References 
1
0.36
19
Authors
4
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Qunfeng Liu1506.76
guang yang27415.11
Zhong-Zhi Zhang350.85
Jinping Zeng4339.01