Sampling-Based Global Optimal Control and Estimation via Semidefinite Programming

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Groudiev, Antoine, Schramm, Fabian, Berthier, Éloïse, Carpentier, Justin, Dümbgen, Frederike
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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_version_ 1866918502128943104
author Groudiev, Antoine
Schramm, Fabian
Berthier, Éloïse
Carpentier, Justin
Dümbgen, Frederike
author_facet Groudiev, Antoine
Schramm, Fabian
Berthier, Éloïse
Carpentier, Justin
Dümbgen, Frederike
contents Global optimization has gained attraction over the past decades, thanks to the development of both theoretical foundations and efficient numerical routines. Among recent advances, Kernel Sum of Squares (KernelSOS) provides a powerful theoretical framework, combining the expressivity of kernel methods with the guarantees of SOS optimization. In this paper, we take KernelSOS from theory to practice and demonstrate its use on challenging control and robotics problems. We identify and address the practical considerations required to make the method work in applied settings: restarting strategies, systematic calibration of hyperparameters, methods for recovering minimizers, and the combination with fast local solvers. As a proof of concept, the application of KernelSOS to robot localization highlights its competitiveness with existing SOS approaches that rely on heuristics and handcrafted reformulations to render the problem polynomial. Even in the high-dimensional, non-parametric setting of trajectory optimization with simulators treated as black boxes, we demonstrate how KernelSOS can be combined with fast local solvers to uncover higher-quality solutions without compromising overall runtimes.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2507_17572
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Sampling-Based Global Optimal Control and Estimation via Semidefinite Programming
Groudiev, Antoine
Schramm, Fabian
Berthier, Éloïse
Carpentier, Justin
Dümbgen, Frederike
Robotics
Global optimization has gained attraction over the past decades, thanks to the development of both theoretical foundations and efficient numerical routines. Among recent advances, Kernel Sum of Squares (KernelSOS) provides a powerful theoretical framework, combining the expressivity of kernel methods with the guarantees of SOS optimization. In this paper, we take KernelSOS from theory to practice and demonstrate its use on challenging control and robotics problems. We identify and address the practical considerations required to make the method work in applied settings: restarting strategies, systematic calibration of hyperparameters, methods for recovering minimizers, and the combination with fast local solvers. As a proof of concept, the application of KernelSOS to robot localization highlights its competitiveness with existing SOS approaches that rely on heuristics and handcrafted reformulations to render the problem polynomial. Even in the high-dimensional, non-parametric setting of trajectory optimization with simulators treated as black boxes, we demonstrate how KernelSOS can be combined with fast local solvers to uncover higher-quality solutions without compromising overall runtimes.
title Sampling-Based Global Optimal Control and Estimation via Semidefinite Programming
topic Robotics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.17572