Robust nonlinear optimization with conic representable uncertainty set

The robust optimization methodology is known as a popular method dealing with optimization problems with uncertain data and hard constraints. This methodology has been applied so far to various convex conic optimization problems where only their inequality constraints are subject to uncertainty. In this paper, the robust optimization methodology is applied to the general nonlinear programming (NLP) problem involving both uncertain inequality and equality constraints. The uncertainty set is defined by conic representable sets, the proposed uncertainty set is general enough to include many uncertainty sets, which have been used in literature, as special cases. The robust counterpart (RC) of the general NLP problem is approximated under this uncertainty set. It is shown that the resulting approximate RC of the general NLP problem is valid in a small neighborhood of the nominal value. Furthermore a rather general class of programming problems is posed that the robust counterparts of its problems can be derived exactly under the proposed uncertainty set. Our results show the applicability of robust optimization to a wider area of real applications and theoretical problems with more general uncertainty sets than those considered so far. The resulting robust counterparts which are traditional optimization problems make it possible to use existing algorithms of mathematical optimization to solve more complicated and general robust optimization problems.

► The robust nonlinear programming (NLP) problem is investigated.
► The uncertainty set is described by a conic representation.
► It is shown that the proposed uncertainty set is rather general.
► The robust counterpart of the general NLP is approximated.
► An exact robust counterpart for a special class of NLP is derived.