A proximal method for solving nonlinear minmax location problems with perturbed minimal time functions via conjugate duality

Abstract

We investigate via a conjugate duality approach general nonlinear minmax location problems formulated by means of an extended perturbed minimal time function, necessary and sufficient optimality conditions being delivered together with characterizations of the optimal solutions in some particular instances. A parallel splitting proximal point method is employed in order to numerically solve such problems and their duals. We present the computational results obtained in matlab on concrete examples, successfully comparing these, where possible, with earlier similar methods from the literature. Moreover, the dual employment of the proximal method turns out to deliver the optimal solution to the considered primal problem faster than the direct usage on the latter. Since our technique successfully solves location optimization problems with large data sets in high dimensions, we envision its future usage on big data problems arising in machine learning.