Benign Nonconvex Landscapes in Optimal and Robust Control, Part II: Extended Convex Lifting

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Zheng, Yang, Pai, Chih-Fan, Tang, Yujie
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
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author Zheng, Yang
Pai, Chih-Fan
Tang, Yujie
author_facet Zheng, Yang
Pai, Chih-Fan
Tang, Yujie
contents Many optimal and robust control problems are nonconvex and potentially nonsmooth in their policy optimization forms. In Part II of this paper, we introduce a new and unified Extended Convex Lifting (ECL) framework to reveal hidden convexity in classical optimal and robust control problems from a modern optimization perspective. Our ECL offers a bridge between nonconvex policy optimization and convex reformulations, enabling convex analysis for nonconvex problems. Despite non-convexity and non-smoothness, the existence of an ECL not only reveals that minimizing the original function is equivalent to a convex problem but also certifies a class of first-order non-degenerate stationary points to be globally optimal. Therefore, no spurious stationarity exists in the set of non-degenerate policies. This ECL framework can cover many benchmark control problems, including state feedback linear quadratic regulator (LQR), dynamic output feedback linear quadratic Gaussian (LQG) control, and $\mathcal{H}_\infty$ robust control. ECL can also handle a class of distributed control problems when the notion of quadratic invariance (QI) holds. We further show that all static stabilizing policies are non-degenerate for state feedback LQR and $\mathcal{H}_\infty$ control under standard assumptions. We believe that the new ECL framework may be of independent interest for analyzing nonconvex problems beyond control.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2406_04001
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Benign Nonconvex Landscapes in Optimal and Robust Control, Part II: Extended Convex Lifting
Zheng, Yang
Pai, Chih-Fan
Tang, Yujie
Optimization and Control
Systems and Control
Dynamical Systems
Many optimal and robust control problems are nonconvex and potentially nonsmooth in their policy optimization forms. In Part II of this paper, we introduce a new and unified Extended Convex Lifting (ECL) framework to reveal hidden convexity in classical optimal and robust control problems from a modern optimization perspective. Our ECL offers a bridge between nonconvex policy optimization and convex reformulations, enabling convex analysis for nonconvex problems. Despite non-convexity and non-smoothness, the existence of an ECL not only reveals that minimizing the original function is equivalent to a convex problem but also certifies a class of first-order non-degenerate stationary points to be globally optimal. Therefore, no spurious stationarity exists in the set of non-degenerate policies. This ECL framework can cover many benchmark control problems, including state feedback linear quadratic regulator (LQR), dynamic output feedback linear quadratic Gaussian (LQG) control, and $\mathcal{H}_\infty$ robust control. ECL can also handle a class of distributed control problems when the notion of quadratic invariance (QI) holds. We further show that all static stabilizing policies are non-degenerate for state feedback LQR and $\mathcal{H}_\infty$ control under standard assumptions. We believe that the new ECL framework may be of independent interest for analyzing nonconvex problems beyond control.
title Benign Nonconvex Landscapes in Optimal and Robust Control, Part II: Extended Convex Lifting
topic Optimization and Control
Systems and Control
Dynamical Systems
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2406.04001