@misc{FuegenschuhGroesserVierhaus, author = {F{\"u}genschuh, Armin and Gr{\"o}sser, Stefan N. and Vierhaus, Ingmar}, title = {A Global Approach to the Control of an Industry Structure System Dynamics Model}, issn = {1438-0064}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0297-zib-42932}, abstract = {We consider a system dynamics model that describes the effect of human activity on natural resources. The central stocks are the accumulated profit, the industry structures, and the water resources. The model can be controlled through two time-dependent parameters. The goal in this paper is to find a parameter setting that leads to a maximization of a performance index, which reflects both environmental and economic aspects. Thus, the goal is to identify the most sustainable stock of industry structures within the model's constraints and assumptions. In order to find a proven global optimal parameter set, we formulate the System Dynamics Optimization model as a mixed-integer nonlinear problem that is accessible for numerical solvers. Due to the dynamic structure of the model, certain steps of the solution process must be handled with greater care, compared to standard non-dynamic problems. We describe our approach of solving the industry structure model and present computational results. In addition, we discuss the limitations of the approach and next steps.}, language = {en} } @misc{VierhausFuegenschuhGottwaldetal., author = {Vierhaus, Ingmar and F{\"u}genschuh, Armin and Gottwald, Robert Lion and Gr{\"o}sser, Stefan N.}, title = {Modern Nonlinear Optimization Techniques for an Optimal Control of System Dynamics Models}, issn = {1438-0064}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0297-zib-48159}, abstract = {We study System Dynamics models with several free parameters that can be altered by the user. We assume that the user's goal is to achieve a certain dynamic behavior of the model by varying these parameters. In order to the find best possible combination of parameter settings, several automatic parameter tuning methods are described in the literature and readily available within existing System Dynamic software packages. We give a survey on the available techniques in the market and describe their theoretical background. Some of these methods are already six decades old, and meanwhile newer and more powerful optimization methods have emerged in the mathematical literature. One major obstacle for their direct use are tabled data in System Dynamics models, which are usually interpreted as piecewise linear functions. However, modern optimization methods usually require smooth functions which are twice continuously differentiable. We overcome this problem by a smooth spline interpolation of the tabled data. We use a test set of three complex System Dynamic models from the literature, describe their individual transition into optimization problems, and demonstrate the applicability of modern optimization algorithms to these System Dynamics Optimization problems.}, language = {en} } @inproceedings{VierhausFuegenschuhGottwaldetal., author = {Vierhaus, Ingmar and F{\"u}genschuh, Armin and Gottwald, Robert Lion and Gr{\"o}sser, Stefan}, title = {Modern Nonlinear Optimization Techniques for an Optimal Control of System Dynamics Models}, series = {Proceedings of the 32nd International Conference of the System Dynamics Society}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the 32nd International Conference of the System Dynamics Society}, abstract = {We study System Dynamics models with several free parameters that can be altered by the user. We assume that the user's goal is to achieve a certain dynamic behavior of the model by varying these parameters. In order to find best possible combination of parameter settings, several automatic parameter tuning methods are described in the literature and readily available within existing System Dynamic software packages. We give a survey on the available techniques in the market and describe their theoretical background. Some of these methods are already six decades old, and meanwhile newer and more powerful optimization methods have emerged in the mathematical literature. One major obstacle for their direct use are tabled data in System Dynamics models, which are usually interpreted as piecewise linear functions. However, modern optimization methods usually require smooth functions which are twice continuously differentiable. We overcome this problem by a smooth spline interpolation of the tabled data. We use a test set of three complex System Dynamic models from the literature, describe their individual transition into optimization problems, and demonstrate the applicability of modern optimization algorithms to these System Dynamics Optimization problems.}, language = {en} } @article{VierhausFuegenschuhGottwaldetal., author = {Vierhaus, Ingmar and F{\"u}genschuh, Armin and Gottwald, Robert Lion and Gr{\"o}sser, Stefan}, title = {Using white-box nonlinear optimization methods in system dynamics policy improvement}, series = {System Dynamics Review}, volume = {33}, journal = {System Dynamics Review}, number = {2}, doi = {10.1002/sdr.1583}, pages = {138 -- 168}, abstract = {We present a new strategy for the direct optimization of the values of policy functions. This approach is particularly well suited to model actors with a global perspective on the system and relies heavily on modern mathematical white-box optimization methods. We demonstrate our strategy on two classical models: market growth and World2. Each model is first transformed into an optimization problem by defining how the actor can influence the models' dynamics and by choosing objective functions to measure improvements. To improve comparability between different runs, we also introduce a comparison measure for possible interventions. We solve the optimization problems, discuss the resulting policies and compare them to the existing results from the literature. In particular, we present a run of the World2 model which significantly improves the published "towards a global equilibrium" run with equal cost of intervention.}, language = {en} }