Feasibility-Aware Decision-Focused Learning for Predicting Parameters in the Constraints

Fuente: arXiv
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Autori principali: Mandi, Jayanta, Defresne, Marianne, Berden, Senne, Guns, Tias
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2025
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author Mandi, Jayanta
Defresne, Marianne
Berden, Senne
Guns, Tias
author_facet Mandi, Jayanta
Defresne, Marianne
Berden, Senne
Guns, Tias
contents When some parameters of a constrained optimization problem (COP) are uncertain, this gives rise to a predict-then-optimize (PtO) problem, comprising two stages: the prediction of the unknown parameters from contextual information and the subsequent optimization using those predicted parameters. Decision-focused learning (DFL) implements the first stage by training a machine learning (ML) model to optimize the quality of the decisions made using the predicted parameters. When the predicted parameters occur in the constraints, they can lead to infeasible solutions. Therefore, it is important to simultaneously manage both feasibility and decision quality. We develop a DFL framework for predicting constraint parameters in a generic COP. While prior works typically assume that the underlying optimization problem is a linear program (LP) or integer LP (ILP), our approach makes no such assumption. We derive two novel loss functions based on maximum likelihood estimation (MLE): the first one penalizes infeasibility (by penalizing predicted parameters that lead to infeasible solutions), while the second one penalizes suboptimal decisions (by penalizing predicted parameters that make the true optimal solution infeasible). We introduce a single tunable parameter to form a weighted average of the two losses, allowing decision-makers to balance suboptimality and feasibility. We experimentally demonstrate that adjusting this parameter provides decision-makers control over this trade-off. Moreover, across several COP instances, we show that adjusting the tunable parameter allows a decision-maker to prioritize either suboptimality or feasibility, outperforming the performance of existing baselines in either objective.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2510_04951
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Feasibility-Aware Decision-Focused Learning for Predicting Parameters in the Constraints
Mandi, Jayanta
Defresne, Marianne
Berden, Senne
Guns, Tias
Machine Learning
Artificial Intelligence
When some parameters of a constrained optimization problem (COP) are uncertain, this gives rise to a predict-then-optimize (PtO) problem, comprising two stages: the prediction of the unknown parameters from contextual information and the subsequent optimization using those predicted parameters. Decision-focused learning (DFL) implements the first stage by training a machine learning (ML) model to optimize the quality of the decisions made using the predicted parameters. When the predicted parameters occur in the constraints, they can lead to infeasible solutions. Therefore, it is important to simultaneously manage both feasibility and decision quality. We develop a DFL framework for predicting constraint parameters in a generic COP. While prior works typically assume that the underlying optimization problem is a linear program (LP) or integer LP (ILP), our approach makes no such assumption. We derive two novel loss functions based on maximum likelihood estimation (MLE): the first one penalizes infeasibility (by penalizing predicted parameters that lead to infeasible solutions), while the second one penalizes suboptimal decisions (by penalizing predicted parameters that make the true optimal solution infeasible). We introduce a single tunable parameter to form a weighted average of the two losses, allowing decision-makers to balance suboptimality and feasibility. We experimentally demonstrate that adjusting this parameter provides decision-makers control over this trade-off. Moreover, across several COP instances, we show that adjusting the tunable parameter allows a decision-maker to prioritize either suboptimality or feasibility, outperforming the performance of existing baselines in either objective.
title Feasibility-Aware Decision-Focused Learning for Predicting Parameters in the Constraints
topic Machine Learning
Artificial Intelligence
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.04951