Software Tools for Nonlinear Optimization

Abstract

This article reviews the state-of-the-art of nonlinear solvers as well as frameworks for numerical optimiza-tion, which is more and more utilized for robotics appli-cations. We will discuss the features and project status for each solver and detail how one can use a numeri-cal optimization framework to avoid being limited to a particular solver. The comparison allows to choose the appropriate strategy in robotics where trajectory gener-ation, posture generation, control can be implemented as different types of optimization problems.