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tfp.optimizer.nelder_mead_minimize

tfp.optimizer.nelder_mead_minimize(
    objective_function,
    initial_simplex=None,
    initial_vertex=None,
    step_sizes=None,
    objective_at_initial_simplex=None,
    objective_at_initial_vertex=None,
    batch_evaluate_objective=False,
    func_tolerance=1e-08,
    position_tolerance=1e-08,
    parallel_iterations=1,
    max_iterations=None,
    reflection=None,
    expansion=None,
    contraction=None,
    shrinkage=None,
    name=None
)

Minimum of the objective function using the Nelder Mead simplex algorithm.

Performs an unconstrained minimization of a (possibly non-smooth) function using the Nelder Mead simplex method. Nelder Mead method does not support univariate functions. Hence the dimensions of the domain must be 2 or greater. For details of the algorithm, see [Press, Teukolsky, Vetterling and Flannery(2007)][1].

Points in the domain of the objective function may be represented as a Tensor of general shape but with rank at least 1. The algorithm proceeds by modifying a full rank simplex in the domain. The initial simplex may either be specified by the user or can be constructed using a single vertex supplied by the user. In the latter case, if v0 is the supplied vertex, the simplex is the convex hull of the set:

S = {v0} + {v0 + step_i * e_i}

Here e_i is a vector which is 1 along the i-th axis and zero elsewhere and step_i is a characteristic length scale along the i-th axis. If the step size is not supplied by the user, a unit step size is used in every axis. Alternately, a single step size may be specified which is used for every axis. The most flexible option is to supply a bespoke step size for every axis.

Usage:

The following example demonstrates the usage of the Nelder Mead minimzation on a two dimensional problem with the minimum located at a non-differentiable point.

  # The objective function
  def sqrt_quadratic(x):
    return tf.sqrt(tf.reduce_sum(x ** 2, axis=-1))

  start = tf.constant([6.0, -21.0])  # Starting point for the search.
  optim_results = tfp.optimizer.nelder_mead_minimize(
      sqrt_quadratic, initial_vertex=start, func_tolerance=1e-8,
      batch_evaluate_objective=True)

  with tf.Session() as session:
    results = session.run(optim_results)
    # Check that the search converged
    assert(results.converged)
    # Check that the argmin is close to the actual value.
    np.testing.assert_allclose(results.position, np.array([0.0, 0.0]),
                               atol=1e-7)
    # Print out the total number of function evaluations it took.
    print ("Function evaluations: %d" % results.num_objective_evaluations)

References:

[1]: William Press, Saul Teukolsky, William Vetterling and Brian Flannery. Numerical Recipes in C++, third edition. pp. 502-507. (2007). http://numerical.recipes/cpppages/chap0sel.pdf

[2]: Jeffrey Lagarias, James Reeds, Margaret Wright and Paul Wright. Convergence properties of the Nelder-Mead simplex method in low dimensions, Siam J. Optim., Vol 9, No. 1, pp. 112-147. (1998). http://www.math.kent.edu/~reichel/courses/Opt/reading.material.2/nelder.mead.pdf

[3]: Fuchang Gao and Lixing Han. Implementing the Nelder-Mead simplex algorithm with adaptive parameters. Computational Optimization and Applications, Vol 51, Issue 1, pp 259-277. (2012). https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/15b4/c4aa7437df4d032c6ee6ce98d6030dd627be.pdf

Args:

  • objective_function: A Python callable that accepts a point as a real Tensor and returns a Tensor of real dtype containing the value of the function at that point. The function to be minimized. If batch_evaluate_objective is True, the callable may be evaluated on a Tensor of shape [n+1] + s where n is the dimension of the problem and s is the shape of a single point in the domain (so n is the size of a Tensor representing a single point). In this case, the expected return value is a Tensor of shape [n+1]. Note that this method does not support univariate functions so the problem dimension n must be strictly greater than 1.
  • initial_simplex: (Optional) Tensor of real dtype. The initial simplex to start the search. If supplied, should be a Tensor of shape [n+1] + s where n is the dimension of the problem and s is the shape of a single point in the domain. Each row (i.e. the Tensor with a given value of the first index) is interpreted as a vertex of a simplex and hence the rows must be affinely independent. If not supplied, an axes aligned simplex is constructed using the initial_vertex and step_sizes. Only one and at least one of initial_simplex and initial_vertex must be supplied.
  • initial_vertex: (Optional) Tensor of real dtype and any shape that can be consumed by the objective_function. A single point in the domain that will be used to construct an axes aligned initial simplex.
  • step_sizes: (Optional) Tensor of real dtype and shape broadcasting compatible with initial_vertex. Supplies the simplex scale along each axes. Only used if initial_simplex is not supplied. See description above for details on how step sizes and initial vertex are used to construct the initial simplex.
  • objective_at_initial_simplex: (Optional) Rank 1 Tensor of real dtype of a rank 1 Tensor. The value of the objective function at the initial simplex. May be supplied only if initial_simplex is supplied. If not supplied, it will be computed.
  • objective_at_initial_vertex: (Optional) Scalar Tensor of real dtype. The value of the objective function at the initial vertex. May be supplied only if the initial_vertex is also supplied.
  • batch_evaluate_objective: (Optional) Python bool. If True, the objective function will be evaluated on all the vertices of the simplex packed into a single tensor. If False, the objective will be mapped across each vertex separately. Evaluating the objective function in a batch allows use of vectorization and should be preferred if the objective function allows it.
  • func_tolerance: (Optional) Scalar Tensor of real dtype. The algorithm stops if the absolute difference between the largest and the smallest function value on the vertices of the simplex is below this number.
  • position_tolerance: (Optional) Scalar Tensor of real dtype. The algorithm stops if the largest absolute difference between the coordinates of the vertices is below this threshold.
  • parallel_iterations: (Optional) Positive integer. The number of iterations allowed to run in parallel.
  • max_iterations: (Optional) Scalar positive Tensor of dtype int32. The maximum number of iterations allowed. If None then no limit is applied.
  • reflection: (Optional) Positive Scalar Tensor of same dtype as initial_vertex. This parameter controls the scaling of the reflected vertex. See, [Press et al(2007)][1] for details. If not specified, uses the dimension dependent prescription of [Gao and Han(2012)][3].
  • expansion: (Optional) Positive Scalar Tensor of same dtype as initial_vertex. Should be greater than 1 and reflection. This parameter controls the expanded scaling of a reflected vertex. See, [Press et al(2007)][1] for details. If not specified, uses the dimension dependent prescription of [Gao and Han(2012)][3].
  • contraction: (Optional) Positive scalar Tensor of same dtype as initial_vertex. Must be between 0 and 1. This parameter controls the contraction of the reflected vertex when the objective function at the reflected point fails to show sufficient decrease. See, [Press et al(2007)][1] for more details. If not specified, uses the dimension dependent prescription of [Gao and Han(2012][3].
  • shrinkage: (Optional) Positive scalar Tensor of same dtype as initial_vertex. Must be between 0 and 1. This parameter is the scale by which the simplex is shrunk around the best point when the other steps fail to produce improvements. See, [Press et al(2007)][1] for more details. If not specified, uses the dimension dependent prescription of [Gao and Han(2012][3].
  • name: (Optional) Python str. The name prefixed to the ops created by this function. If not supplied, the default name 'minimize' is used.

Returns:

  • optimizer_results: A namedtuple containing the following items:
  • converged: Scalar boolean tensor indicating whether the minimum was found within tolerance.
  • num_objective_evaluations: The total number of objective evaluations performed.
  • position: A Tensor containing the last argument value found during the search. If the search converged, then this value is the argmin of the objective function.
  • objective_value: A tensor containing the value of the objective function at the position. If the search converged, then this is the (local) minimum of the objective function.
  • final_simplex: The last simplex constructed before stopping.
  • final_objective_values: The objective function evaluated at the vertices of the final simplex.
  • initial_simplex: The starting simplex.
  • initial_objective_values: The objective function evaluated at the vertices of the initial simplex.
  • num_iterations: The number of iterations of the main algorithm body.

Raises:

  • ValueError: If any of the following conditions hold
    1. If none or more than one of initial_simplex and initial_vertex are supplied.
    2. If initial_simplex and step_sizes are both specified.