Linear programming is a very well known and deeply applied field of optimization theory. One of its most famous and used algorithms is the so called Simplex algorithm, independently proposed by Kantorovič and Dantzig, between the end of the 30s and the end of the 40s. Even if extremely powerful, the Simplex algorithm suffers of one initialization issue: its starting point must be a feasible basic solution of the problem to solve. To overcome it, two approaches may be used: the two-phases method and the Big-M method, both presenting positive and negative aspects. In this work we aim to propose a non-Archimedean and non-parametric variant of the Big-M method, able to overcome the drawbacks of its classical counterpart (mainly, the difficulty in setting the right value for the constant M). We realized such extension by means of the novel computational methodology proposed by Sergeyev, known as Grossone Methodology. We have validated the new algorithm by testing it on three linear programming problems.

This article concerns the study of mixed Pareto-lexicographic multiobjective optimization problems where the objectives must be partitioned in multiple priority levels (PLs). A PL is a group of objectives having the same importance in terms of optimization and subsequent decision making, while between PLs a lexicographic ordering exists. A naive approach would be to define a multilevel dominance relationship and apply a standard EMO/EMaO algorithm, but the concept does not conform to a stable optimization process as the resulting dominance relationship violates the transitive property needed to achieve consistent comparisons. To overcome this, we present a novel approach that merges a custom nondominance relation with the Grossone methodology, a mathematical framework to handle infinite and infinitesimal quantities. The proposed method is implemented on a popular multiobjective optimization algorithm (NSGA-II), deriving a generalization of it called by us PL-NSGA-II. We also demonstrate the usability of our strategy by quantitatively comparing the results obtained by PL-NSGA-II against other priority and nonpriority-based approaches. Among the test cases, we include two real-world applications: one 10-objective aircraft design problem and one 3-objective crash safety vehicle design task. The obtained results show that PL-NSGA-II is more suited to solve lexicographical many-objective problems than the general purpose EMaO algorithms.

This work aims at reviewing the state of the art of the field of lexicographic multi/many-objective optimization. The discussion starts with a review of the literature, emphasizing the numerous application in the real life and the recent burst received by the advent of new computational frameworks which work well in such contexts, e.g., Grossone Methodology. Then the focus shifts on a new class of problems proposed and studied for the first time only recently: the priority-levels mixed-pareto-lexicographic multi-objective-problems (PL-MPL-MOPs). This class of programs preserves the original preference ordering of pure many-objective lexicographic optimization, but instantiates it over multi-objective problems rather than scalar ones. Interestingly, PL-MPL-MOPs seem to be very well qualified for modeling real world tasks, such as the design of either secure or fast vehicles. The work also describes the implementation of an evolutionary algorithm able to solve PL-MPL-MOPs, and reports its performance when compared against other popular optimizers.

Thanks to the advent of new technologies and higher real-time computational capabilities, the use of unmanned vehicles in the marine domain has received a significant boost in the last decade. Ocean and seabed sampling, missions in dangerous areas, and civilian security are only a few of the large number of applications which currently benefit from unmanned vehicles. One of the most actively studied topic is their full autonomy; i.e., the design of marine vehicles capable of pursuing a task while reacting to the changes of the environment without the intervention of humans, not even remotely. Environmental dynamicity may consist of variations of currents, the presence of unknown obstacles, and attacks from adversaries (e.g., pirates). To achieve autonomy in such highly dynamic uncertain conditions, many types of autonomous path planning problems need to be solved. There has thus been a commensurate number of approaches and methods to optimize this kind of path planning. This work focuses on game-theoretic approaches and provides a wide overview of the current state of the art, along with future directions.