@misc{BorndoerferBuwayaSagnoletal.2014, author = {Bornd{\"o}rfer, Ralf and Buwaya, Julia and Sagnol, Guillaume and Swarat, Elmar}, title = {Network Spot Checking Games: Theory and Application to Toll Enforcing in Transportation Networks}, issn = {1438-0064}, doi = {10.1002/net.21596}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0297-zib-47139}, year = {2014}, abstract = {We introduce the class of spot-checking games (SC games). These games model problems where the goal is to distribute fare inspectors over a toll network. In an SC game, the pure strategies of network users correspond to paths in a graph, and the pure strategies of the inspectors are subset of edges to be controlled. Although SC games are not zero-sum, we show that a Nash equilibrium can be computed by linear programming. The computation of a strong Stackelberg equilibrium is more relevant for this problem, but we show that this is NP-hard. However, we give some bounds on the \emph{price of spite}, which measures how the payoff of the inspector degrades when committing to a Nash equilibrium. Finally, we demonstrate the quality of these bounds for a real-world application, namely the enforcement of a truck toll on German motorways.}, language = {en} } @misc{SagnolBalzerBorndoerferetal.2016, author = {Sagnol, Guillaume and Balzer, Felix and Bornd{\"o}rfer, Ralf and Spies, Claudia and von Dincklage, Falk}, title = {Makespan and Tardiness in Activity Networks with Lognormal Activity Durations}, issn = {1438-0064}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0297-zib-59290}, year = {2016}, abstract = {We propose an algorithm to approximate the distribution of the completion time (makespan) and the tardiness costs of a project, when durations are lognormally distributed. This problem arises naturally for the optimization of surgery scheduling, where it is very common to assume lognormal procedure times. We present an analogous of Clark's formulas to compute the moments of the maximum of a set of lognormal variables. Then, we use moment matching formulas to approximate the earliest starting time of each activity of the project by a shifted lognormal variable. This approach can be seen as a lognormal variant of a state-of-the-art method used for the statistical static timing analysis (SSTA) of digital circuits. We carried out numerical experiments with instances based on real data from the application to surgery scheduling. We obtained very promising results, especially for the approximation of the mean overtime in operating rooms, for which our algorithm yields results of a similar quality to Monte-Carlo simulations requiring an amount of computing time several orders of magnitude larger.}, language = {en} } @misc{SagnolHegeWeiser2016, author = {Sagnol, Guillaume and Hege, Hans-Christian and Weiser, Martin}, title = {Using sparse kernels to design computer experiments with tunable precision}, issn = {1438-0064}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0297-zib-59605}, year = {2016}, abstract = {Statistical methods to design computer experiments usually rely on a Gaussian process (GP) surrogate model, and typically aim at selecting design points (combinations of algorithmic and model parameters) that minimize the average prediction variance, or maximize the prediction accuracy for the hyperparameters of the GP surrogate. In many applications, experiments have a tunable precision, in the sense that one software parameter controls the tradeoff between accuracy and computing time (e.g., mesh size in FEM simulations or number of Monte-Carlo samples). We formulate the problem of allocating a budget of computing time over a finite set of candidate points for the goals mentioned above. This is a continuous optimization problem, which is moreover convex whenever the tradeoff function accuracy vs. computing time is concave. On the other hand, using non-concave weight functions can help to identify sparse designs. In addition, using sparse kernel approximations drastically reduce the cost per iteration of the multiplicative weights updates that can be used to solve this problem.}, language = {en} } @article{SagnolHarman2015, author = {Sagnol, Guillaume and Harman, Radoslav}, title = {Computing exact D-optimal designs by mixed integer second-order cone programming}, volume = {43}, journal = {The Annals of Statistics}, number = {5}, doi = {10.1214/15-AOS1339}, pages = {2198 -- 2224}, year = {2015}, abstract = {Let the design of an experiment be represented by an \$s-\$dimensional vector \$w\$ of weights with nonnegative components. Let the quality of \$w\$ for the estimation of the parameters of the statistical model be measured by the criterion of \$D-\$optimality, defined as the \$m\$th root of the determinant of the information matrix \$M(w)=\sum_{i=1}^s w_i A_i A_i^T\$, where \$A_i\$,\$i=1,\ldots,s\$ are known matrices with \$m\$ rows. In this paper, we show that the criterion of \$D-\$optimality is second-order cone representable. As a result, the method of second-order cone programming can be used to compute an approximate \$D-\$optimal design with any system of linear constraints on the vector of weights. More importantly, the proposed characterization allows us to compute an exact \$D-\$optimal design, which is possible thanks to high-quality branch-and-cut solvers specialized to solve mixed integer second-order cone programming problems. Our results extend to the case of the criterion of \$D_K-\$optimality, which measures the quality of \$w\$ for the estimation of a linear parameter subsystem defined by a full-rank coefficient matrix \$K\$. We prove that some other widely used criteria are also second-order cone representable, for instance, the criteria of \$A-\$, \$A_K\$-, \$G-\$ and \$I-\$optimality. We present several numerical examples demonstrating the efficiency and general applicability of the proposed method. We show that in many cases the mixed integer second-order cone programming approach allows us to find a provably optimal exact design, while the standard heuristics systematically miss the optimum.}, language = {en} } @inproceedings{DuarteSagnolOliveira2015, author = {Duarte, Belmiro P.M. and Sagnol, Guillaume and Oliveira, Nuno M.C.}, title = {A Robust Minimax Semidefinite Programming Formulation for Optimal Design of Experiments for Model Parametrization}, volume = {37}, booktitle = {12th International Symposium on Process Systems Engineering and 25th European Symposium on Computer Aided Process Engineering}, doi = {10.1016/B978-0-444-63578-5.50146-8}, pages = {905 -- 910}, year = {2015}, abstract = {Model-based optimal design of experiments (M-bODE) is a crucial step in model parametrization since it encloses a framework that maximizes the amount of information extracted from a battery of lab experiments. We address the design of M-bODE for dynamic models considering a continuous representation of the design. We use Semidefinite Programming (SDP) to derive robust minmax formulations for nonlinear models, and extend the formulations to other criteria. The approaches are demonstrated for a CSTR where a two-step reaction occurs.}, language = {en} } @article{DuarteSagnolWong2018, author = {Duarte, Belmiro P.M. and Sagnol, Guillaume and Wong, Weng Kee}, title = {An algorithm based on Semidefinite Programming for finding minimax optimal designs}, volume = {119}, journal = {Computational Statistics \& Data Analysis}, doi = {10.1016/j.csda.2017.09.008}, pages = {99 -- 117}, year = {2018}, language = {en} } @misc{DuarteSagnolOliveira2015, author = {Duarte, Belmiro P.M. and Sagnol, Guillaume and Oliveira, Nuno M.C.}, title = {A robust minimax Semidefinite Programming formulation for optimal design of experiments for model parametrization}, issn = {1438-0064}, doi = {10.1016/B978-0-444-63578-5.50146-8}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0297-zib-54626}, year = {2015}, abstract = {Model-based optimal design of experiments (M-bODE) is a crucial step in model parametrization since it encloses a framework that maximizes the amount of information extracted from a battery of lab experiments. We address the design of M-bODE for dynamic models considering a continuous representation of the design. We use Semidefinite Programming (SDP) to derive robust minmax formulations for nonlinear models, and extend the formulations to other criteria. The approaches are demonstrated for a CSTR where a two-step reaction occurs.}, language = {en} } @misc{Sagnol2012, author = {Sagnol, Guillaume}, title = {Approximation of a Maximum-Submodular-Coverage problem involving spectral functions, with application to Experimental Design}, volume = {151}, number = {1--2}, issn = {1438-0064}, doi = {10.1016/j.dam.2012.07.016}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0297-zib-14956}, pages = {258 -- 276}, year = {2012}, abstract = {We study a family of combinatorial optimization problems defined by a parameter \$p\in[0,1]\$, which involves spectral functions applied to positive semidefinite matrices, and has some application in the theory of optimal experimental design. This family of problems tends to a generalization of the classical maximum coverage problem as \$p\$ goes to \$0\$, and to a trivial instance of the knapsack problem as \$p\$ goes to \$1\$. In this article, we establish a matrix inequality which shows that the objective function is submodular for all \$p\in[0,1]\$, from which it follows that the greedy approach, which has often been used for this problem, always gives a design within \$1-1/e\$ of the optimum. We next study the design found by rounding the solution of the continuous relaxed problem, an approach which has been applied by several authors. We prove an inequality which generalizes a classical result from the theory of optimal designs, and allows us to give a rounding procedure with an approximation factor which tends to \$1\$ as \$p\$ goes to \$1\$.}, language = {en} } @misc{Sagnol2012, author = {Sagnol, Guillaume}, title = {A Class of Semidefinite Programs with rank-one solutions}, issn = {1438-0064}, doi = {10.1016/j.laa.2011.03.027}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0297-zib-14933}, year = {2012}, abstract = {We show that a class of semidefinite programs (SDP) admits a solution that is a positive semidefinite matrix of rank at most \$r\$, where \$r\$ is the rank of the matrix involved in the objective function of the SDP. The optimization problems of this class are semidefinite packing problems, which are the SDP analogs to vector packing problems. Of particular interest is the case in which our result guarantees the existence of a solution of rank one: we show that the computation of this solution actually reduces to a Second Order Cone Program (SOCP). We point out an application in statistics, in the optimal design of experiments.}, language = {en} } @misc{Sagnol2012, author = {Sagnol, Guillaume}, title = {Network-related problems in Optimal Experimental Design and Second Order Cone Programming}, volume = {51}, number = {51}, issn = {1438-0064}, doi = {10.2478/v10127-012-0016-x}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0297-zib-14942}, pages = {161 -- 171}, year = {2012}, abstract = {In the past few years several applications of optimal experimental designs have emerged to optimize the measurements in communication networks. The optimal design problems arising from this kind of applications share three interesting properties: (i) measurements are only available at a small number of locations of the network; (ii) each monitor can simultaneously measure several quantities, which can be modeled by ``multiresponse experiments"; (iii) the observation matrices depend on the topology of the network. In this paper, we give an overview of these experimental design problems and recall recent results for the computation of optimal designs by Second Order Cone Programming (SOCP). New results for the network-monitoring of a discrete time process are presented. In particular, we show that the optimal design problem for the monitoring of an AR1 process can be reduced to the standard form and we give experimental results.}, language = {en} } @misc{BorndoerferBuwayaSagnoletal.2012, author = {Bornd{\"o}rfer, Ralf and Buwaya, Julia and Sagnol, Guillaume and Swarat, Elmar}, title = {Optimizing Toll Enforcement in Transportation Networks: a Game-Theoretic Approach}, issn = {1438-0064}, doi = {/10.1016/j.endm.2013.05.100}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0297-zib-17401}, year = {2012}, abstract = {We present a game-theoretic approach to optimize the strategies of toll enforcement on a motorway network. In contrast to previous approaches, we consider a network with an arbitrary topology, and we handle the fact that users may choose their Origin-Destination path; in particular they may take a detour to avoid sections with a high control rate. We show that a Nash equilibrium can be computed with an LP (although the game is not zero-sum), and we give a MIP for the computation of a Stackelberg equilibrium. Experimental results based on an application to the enforcement of a truck toll on German motorways are presented.}, language = {en} } @misc{BorndoerferSagnolSwarat2011, author = {Bornd{\"o}rfer, Ralf and Sagnol, Guillaume and Swarat, Elmar}, title = {An IP Approach to Toll Enforcement Optimization on German Motorways}, issn = {1438-0064}, doi = {10.1007/978-3-642-29210-1_51}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0297-zib-14299}, number = {11-42}, year = {2011}, abstract = {This paper proposes the first model for toll enforcement optimization on German motorways. The enforcement is done by mobile control teams and our goal is to produce a schedule achieving network-wide control, proportional to spatial and time-dependent traffic distributions. Our model consists of two parts. The first plans control tours using a vehicle routing approach with profits and some side constraints. The second plans feasible rosters for the control teams. Both problems can be modeled as Multi-Commodity Flow Problems. Adding additional coupling constraints produces a large-scale integrated integer programming formulation. We show that this model can be solved to optimality for real world instances associated with a control area in East Germany.}, language = {en} } @misc{SagnolBorndoerferSchlechteetal.2014, author = {Sagnol, Guillaume and Bornd{\"o}rfer, Ralf and Schlechte, Thomas and Swarat, Elmar}, title = {The Price of Spite in Spot-checking games}, issn = {1438-0064}, doi = {10.1007/978-3-662-44803-8}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0297-zib-52775}, year = {2014}, abstract = {We introduce the class of spot-checking games (SC games). These games model problems where the goal is to distribute fare inspectors over a toll network. Although SC games are not zero-sum, we show that a Nash equilibrium can be computed by linear programming. The computation of a strong Stackelberg equilibrium is more relevant for this problem, but we show that this is NP-hard. However, we give some bounds on the \emph{price of spite}, which measures how the payoff of the inspector degrades when committing to a Nash equilibrium. Finally, we demonstrate the quality of these bounds for a real-world application, namely the enforcement of a truck toll on German motorways.}, language = {en} } @inproceedings{BorndoerferSagnolSchwartz2016, author = {Bornd{\"o}rfer, Ralf and Sagnol, Guillaume and Schwartz, Stephan}, title = {An Extended Network Interdiction Problem for Optimal Toll Control}, volume = {52}, booktitle = {INOC 2015 - 7th International Network Optimization Conference}, doi = {10.1016/j.endm.2016.03.040}, pages = {301 -- 308}, year = {2016}, abstract = {We study an extension of the shortest path network interdiction problem and present a novel real-world application in this area. We consider the problem of determining optimal locations for toll control stations on the arcs of a transportation network. We handle the fact that drivers can avoid control stations on parallel secondary roads. The problem is formulated as a mixed integer program and solved using Benders decomposition. We present experimental results for the application of our models to German motorways.}, language = {en} } @misc{HarmanSagnol2015, author = {Harman, Radoslav and Sagnol, Guillaume}, title = {Computing D-optimal experimental designs for estimating treatment contrasts under the presence of a nuisance time trend}, issn = {1438-0064}, doi = {10.1007/978-3-319-13881-7_10}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0297-zib-53640}, year = {2015}, abstract = {We prove a mathematical programming characterisation of approximate partial D-optimality under general linear constraints. We use this characterisation with a branch-and-bound method to compute a list of all exact D-optimal designs for estimating a pair of treatment contrasts in the presence of a nuisance time trend up to the size of 24 consecutive trials.}, language = {en} } @inproceedings{SagnolHarman2015, author = {Sagnol, Guillaume and Harman, Radoslav}, title = {Optimal Designs for Steady-state Kalman filters}, volume = {122}, booktitle = {Stochastic Models, Statistics and Their Applications}, editor = {Steland, Ansgar and Rafajłowicz, Ewaryst and Szajowski, Krzysztof}, publisher = {Springer}, doi = {10.1007/978-3-319-13881-7_17}, pages = {149 -- 157}, year = {2015}, abstract = {We consider a stationary discrete-time linear process that can be observed by a finite number of sensors. The experimental design for the observations consists of an allocation of available resources to these sensors. We formalize the problem of selecting a design that maximizes the information matrix of the steady-state of the Kalman filter, with respect to a standard optimality criterion, such as \$D-\$ or \$A-\$optimality. This problem generalizes the optimal experimental design problem for a linear regression model with a finite design space and uncorrelated errors. Finally, we show that under natural assumptions, a steady-state optimal design can be computed by semidefinite programming.}, language = {en} } @inproceedings{HarmanSagnol2015, author = {Harman, Radoslav and Sagnol, Guillaume}, title = {Computing D-optimal experimental designs for estimating treatment contrasts under the presence of a nuisance time trend}, volume = {122}, booktitle = {Stochastic Models, Statistics and Their Applications}, editor = {Steland, Ansgar and Rafajłowicz, Ewaryst and Szajowski, Krzysztof}, publisher = {Springer}, doi = {10.1007/978-3-319-13881-7_10}, pages = {83 -- 91}, year = {2015}, abstract = {We prove a mathematical programming characterisation of approximate partial D-optimality under general linear constraints. We use this characterisation with a branch-and-bound method to compute a list of all exact D-optimal designs for estimating a pair of treatment contrasts in the presence of a nuisance time trend up to the size of 24 consecutive trials.}, language = {en} } @misc{BorndoerferSagnolSwarat2012, author = {Bornd{\"o}rfer, Ralf and Sagnol, Guillaume and Swarat, Elmar}, title = {A Case Study on Optimizing Toll Enforcements on Motorways}, issn = {1438-0064}, doi = {10.4230/OASIcs.SCOR.2012.1}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0297-zib-15498}, year = {2012}, abstract = {In this paper we present the problem of computing optimal tours of toll inspectors on German motorways. This problem is a special type of vehicle routing problem and builds up an integrated model, consisting of a tour planning and a duty rostering part. The tours should guarantee a network-wide control whose intensity is proportional to given spatial and time dependent traffic distributions. We model this using a space-time network and formulate the associated optimization problem by an integer program (IP). Since sequential approaches fail, we integrated the assignment of crews to the tours in our model. In this process all duties of a crew member must fit in a feasible roster. It is modeled as a Multi-Commodity Flow Problem in a directed acyclic graph, where specific paths correspond to feasible rosters for one month. We present computational results in a case-study on a German subnetwork which documents the practicability of our approach.}, language = {en} } @inproceedings{BorndoerferSagnolSwarat2012, author = {Bornd{\"o}rfer, Ralf and Sagnol, Guillaume and Swarat, Elmar}, title = {A Case Study on Optimizing Toll Enforcements on Motorways}, volume = {22}, booktitle = {3rd Student Conference on Operational Research}, doi = {10.4230/OASIcs.SCOR.2012.1}, pages = {1 -- 10}, year = {2012}, abstract = {In this paper we present the problem of computing optimal tours of toll inspectors on German motorways. This problem is a special type of vehicle routing problem and builds up an integrated model, consisting of a tour planning and a duty rostering part. The tours should guarantee a network-wide control whose intensity is proportional to given spatial and time dependent traffic distributions. We model this using a space-time network and formulate the associated optimization problem by an integer program (IP). Since sequential approaches fail, we integrated the assignment of crews to the tours in our model. In this process all duties of a crew member must fit in a feasible roster. It is modeled as a Multi-Commodity Flow Problem in a directed acyclic graph, where specific paths correspond to feasible rosters for one month. We present computational results in a case-study on a German subnetwork which documents the practicability of our approach.}, language = {en} } @article{BorndoerferSagnolSchlechteetal.2016, author = {Bornd{\"o}rfer, Ralf and Sagnol, Guillaume and Schlechte, Thomas and Swarat, Elmar}, title = {Optimal duty rostering for toll enforcement inspectors}, volume = {252(2)}, journal = {Annals of Operations Research}, edition = {252}, publisher = {Springer US}, doi = {10.1007/s10479-016-2152-1}, pages = {383 -- 406}, year = {2016}, abstract = {We present the problem of planning mobile tours of inspectors on German motorways to enforce the payment of the toll for heavy good trucks. This is a special type of vehicle routing problem with the objective to conduct as good inspections as possible on the complete network. In addition, we developed a personalized crew rostering model, to schedule the crews of the tours. The planning of daily tours and the rostering are combined in a novel integrated approach and formulated as a complex and large scale Integer Program. The main focus of this paper extends our previous publications on how different requirements for the rostering can be modeled in detail. The second focus is on a bi-criteria analysis of the planning problem to find the balance between the control quality and the roster acceptance. Finally, computational results on real-world instances show the practicability of our method and how different input parameters influence the problem complexity.}, language = {en} } @inproceedings{BorndoerferSagnolSwarat2012, author = {Bornd{\"o}rfer, Ralf and Sagnol, Guillaume and Swarat, Elmar}, title = {An IP Approach to Toll Enforcement Optimization on German Motorways}, booktitle = {Operations Research Proceedings 2011}, doi = {10.1007/978-3-642-29210-1_51}, pages = {317 -- 322}, year = {2012}, abstract = {This paper proposes the first model for toll enforcement optimization on German motorways. The enforcement is done by mobile control teams and our goal is to produce a schedule achieving network-wide control, proportional to spatial and time-dependent traffic distributions. Our model consists of two parts. The first plans control tours using a vehicle routing approach with profits and some side constraints. The second plans feasible rosters for the control teams. Both problems can be modeled as Multi-Commodity Flow Problems. Adding additional coupling constraints produces a large-scale integrated integer programming formulation. We show that this model can be solved to optimality for real world instances associated with a control area in East Germany.}, language = {en} } @inproceedings{BorndoerferBuwayaSagnoletal.2013, author = {Bornd{\"o}rfer, Ralf and Buwaya, Julia and Sagnol, Guillaume and Swarat, Elmar}, title = {Optimizing Toll Enforcement in Transportation Networks: a Game-Theoretic Approach}, volume = {41}, booktitle = {Proceedings of INOC'2013}, doi = {http://dx.doi.org//10.1016/j.endm.2013.05.100}, pages = {253 -- 260}, year = {2013}, abstract = {We present a game-theoretic approach to optimize the strategies of toll enforcement on a motorway network. In contrast to previous approaches, we consider a network with an arbitrary topology, and we handle the fact that users may choose their Origin-Destination path; in particular they may take a detour to avoid sections with a high control rate. We show that a Nash equilibrium can be computed with an LP (although the game is not zero-sum), and we give a MIP for the computation of a Stackelberg equilibrium. Experimental results based on an application to the enforcement of a truck toll on German motorways are presented.}, language = {en} } @inproceedings{BorndoerferOmontSagnoletal.2012, author = {Bornd{\"o}rfer, Ralf and Omont, Bertrand and Sagnol, Guillaume and Swarat, Elmar}, title = {A Stackelberg game to optimize the distribution of controls in transportation networks}, volume = {105}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Game Theory for Networks (GAMENETS 2012)}, doi = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-35582-0_17}, pages = {224 -- 235}, year = {2012}, abstract = {We propose a game theoretic model for the spatial distribution of inspectors on a transportation network. The problem is to spread out the controls so as to enforce the payment of a transit toll. We formulate a linear program to find the control distribution which maximizes the expected toll revenue, and a mixed integer program for the problem of minimizing the number of evaders. Furthermore, we show that the problem of finding an optimal mixed strategy for a coalition of \$N\$ inspectors can be solved efficiently by a column generation procedure. Finally, we give experimental results from an application to the truck toll on German motorways.}, language = {en} } @misc{BorndoerferOmontSagnoletal.2012, author = {Bornd{\"o}rfer, Ralf and Omont, Bertrand and Sagnol, Guillaume and Swarat, Elmar}, title = {A Stackelberg game to optimize the distribution of controls in transportation networks}, issn = {1438-0064}, doi = {10.1007/978-3-642-35582-0_17}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0297-zib-14995}, year = {2012}, abstract = {We propose a game theoretic model for the spatial distribution of inspectors on a transportation network. The problem is to spread out the controls so as to enforce the payment of a transit toll. We formulate a linear program to find the control distribution which maximizes the expected toll revenue, and a mixed integer program for the problem of minimizing the number of evaders. Furthermore, we show that the problem of finding an optimal mixed strategy for a coalition of \$N\$ inspectors can be solved efficiently by a column generation procedure. Finally, we give experimental results from an application to the truck toll on German motorways.}, language = {en} } @misc{BorndoerferSagnolSchwartz2015, author = {Bornd{\"o}rfer, Ralf and Sagnol, Guillaume and Schwartz, Stephan}, title = {An Extended Network Interdiction Problem for Optimal Toll Control}, issn = {1438-0064}, doi = {10.1016/j.endm.2016.03.040}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0297-zib-55405}, year = {2015}, abstract = {We study an extension of the shortest path network interdiction problem and present a novel real-world application in this area. We consider the problem of determining optimal locations for toll control stations on the arcs of a transportation network. We handle the fact that drivers can avoid control stations on parallel secondary roads. The problem is formulated as a mixed integer program and solved using Benders decomposition. We present experimental results for the application of our models to German motorways.}, language = {en} } @article{BorndoerferBuwayaSagnoletal.2015, author = {Bornd{\"o}rfer, Ralf and Buwaya, Julia and Sagnol, Guillaume and Swarat, Elmar}, title = {Network spot-checking games: Theory and application to toll enforcing in transportation networks}, volume = {65}, journal = {Networks}, publisher = {Wiley Periodicals, Inc.}, doi = {10.1002/net.21596}, pages = {312 -- 328}, year = {2015}, abstract = {We introduce the class of spot-checking games (SC games). These games model problems where the goal is to distribute fare inspectors over a toll network. In an SC game, the pure strategies of network users correspond to paths in a graph, and the pure strategies of the inspectors are subset of arcs to be controlled. Although SC games are not zero-sum, we show that a Nash equilibrium can be computed by linear programming. The computation of a strong Stackelberg equilibrium (SSE) is more relevant for this problem and we give a mixed integer programming (MIP) formulation for this problem. We show that the computation of such an equilibrium is NP-hard. More generally, we prove that it is NP-hard to compute a SSE in a polymatrix game, even if the game is pairwise zero-sum. Then, we give some bounds on the price of spite, which measures how the payoff of the inspector degrades when committing to a Nash equilibrium. Finally, we report computational experiments on instances constructed from real data, for an application to the enforcement of a truck toll in Germany. These numerical results show the efficiency of the proposed methods, as well as the quality of the bounds derived in this article.}, language = {en} } @inproceedings{SagnolBorndoerferSchlechteetal.2014, author = {Sagnol, Guillaume and Bornd{\"o}rfer, Ralf and Schlechte, Thomas and Swarat, Elmar}, title = {The Price of Spite in Spot-checking games}, volume = {8768}, booktitle = {7th International Symposium on Algorithmic Game Theory (SAGT'2014)}, editor = {Lavi, Ron}, publisher = {Springer}, isbn = {978-3-662-44802-1}, doi = {10.1007/978-3-662-44803-8}, pages = {293}, year = {2014}, abstract = {We introduce the class of spot-checking games (SC games). These games model problems where the goal is to distribute fare inspectors over a toll network. Although SC games are not zero-sum, we show that a Nash equilibrium can be computed by linear programming. The computation of a strong Stackelberg equilibrium is more relevant for this problem, but we show that this is NP-hard. However, we give some bounds on the \emph{price of spite}, which measures how the payoff of the inspector degrades when committing to a Nash equilibrium. Finally, we demonstrate the quality of these bounds for a real-world application, namely the enforcement of a truck toll on German motorways.}, language = {en} } @misc{BorndoerferSagnolSchlechteetal.2013, author = {Bornd{\"o}rfer, Ralf and Sagnol, Guillaume and Schlechte, Thomas and Swarat, Elmar}, title = {Optimal Toll Enforcement - an Integration of Vehicle Routing and Duty Rostering}, issn = {1438-0064}, doi = {10.1007/s10479-016-2152-1}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0297-zib-45107}, year = {2013}, abstract = {We present the problem of planning mobile tours of inspectors on German motorways to enforce the payment of the toll for heavy good trucks. This is a special type of vehicle routing problem with the objective to conduct as good inspections as possible on the complete network. In addition, the crews of the tours have to be scheduled. Thus, we developed a personalized crew rostering model. The planning of daily tours and the rostering are combined in a novel integrated approach and formulated as a complex and large scale Integer Program. The paper focuses first on different requirements for the rostering and how they can be modeled in detail. The second focus is on a bicriterion analysis of the planning problem to find the balance between the control quality and the roster acceptance. On the one hand the tour planning is a profit maximization problem and on the other hand the rostering should be made in a employee friendly way. Finally, computational results on real-world instances show the practicability of our method.}, language = {en} } @misc{SagnolHarman2014, author = {Sagnol, Guillaume and Harman, Radoslav}, title = {Optimal Designs for Steady-state Kalman filters}, issn = {1438-0064}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0297-zib-52808}, year = {2014}, abstract = {We consider a stationary discrete-time linear process that can be observed by a finite number of sensors. The experimental design for the observations consists of an allocation of available resources to these sensors. We formalize the problem of selecting a design that maximizes the information matrix of the steady-state of the Kalman filter, with respect to a standard optimality criterion, such as \$D-\$ or \$A-\$optimality. This problem generalizes the optimal experimental design problem for a linear regression model with a finite design space and uncorrelated errors. Finally, we show that under natural assumptions, a steady-state optimal design can be computed by semidefinite programming.}, language = {en} } @article{SagnolSchmidtgenanntWaldschmidt2021, author = {Sagnol, Guillaume and Schmidt genannt Waldschmidt, Daniel}, title = {Restricted Adaptivity in Stochastic Scheduling}, volume = {204}, journal = {29th Annual European Symposium on Algorithms (ESA 2021)}, doi = {10.4230/LIPIcs.ESA.2021.79}, pages = {79:1 -- 79:14}, year = {2021}, abstract = {We consider the stochastic scheduling problem of minimizing the expected makespan on m parallel identical machines. While the (adaptive) list scheduling policy achieves an approximation ratio of 2, any (non-adaptive) fixed assignment policy has performance guarantee Ω(logm/loglogm). Although the performance of the latter class of policies are worse, there are applications in which non-adaptive policies are desired. In this work, we introduce the two classes of δ-delay and τ-shift policies whose degree of adaptivity can be controlled by a parameter. We present a policy - belonging to both classes - which is an O(loglogm)-approximation for reasonably bounded parameters. In other words, an exponential improvement on the performance of any fixed assignment policy can be achieved when allowing a small degree of adaptivity. Moreover, we provide a matching lower bound for any δ-delay and τ-shift policy when both parameters, respectively, are in the order of the expected makespan of an optimal non-anticipatory policy.}, language = {en} } @article{PronzatoSagnol2021, author = {Pronzato, Luc and Sagnol, Guillaume}, title = {Removing inessential points in c- and A-optimal design}, volume = {213}, journal = {Journal of Statistical Planning and Inference}, doi = {10.1016/j.jspi.2020.11.011}, pages = {233 -- 252}, year = {2021}, abstract = {A design point is inessential when it does not contribute to an optimal design, and can therefore be safely discarded from the design space. We derive three inequalities for the detection of such inessential points in c-optimal design: the first two are direct consequences of the equivalence theorem for c-optimality; the third one is derived from a second-order cone programming formulation of c-optimal design. Elimination rules for A-optimal design are obtained as a byproduct. When implemented within an optimization algorithm, each inequality gives a screening test that may provide a substantial acceleration by reducing the size of the problem online. Several examples are presented with a multiplicative algorithm to illustrate the effectiveness of the approach.}, language = {en} }