We illustrate the three steps of deriving the RC based on a
polyhedral uncertainty set:
Z ¼f
ζ : Dζ þq Z 0g;
where DA R
mL
; ζ A R
L
, and qA R
m
.
Step 1(worst case reformulation): Notice that (3) is equivalent to
the following worst case reformulation:
a
>
x þ max
ζ
:D
ζ
þq Z 0
ðP
>
xÞ
>
ζ r d: ð4Þ
Step 2(duality): We take the dual of the inner maximization
problem in (4). The inner maximization problem and its dual yield
the same optimal objective value by strong duality. Therefore, (4)
is equivalent to
a
>
x þmin
w
fq
>
w : D
>
w ¼P
>
x; w Z 0gr d: ð5Þ
Step 3(RC): It is important to point out that we can omit the
minimization term in (5), since it is sufficient that the constraint
holds for at least one w. Hence, the final formulation of the RC
becomes
( w : a
>
x þq
>
wr d; D
>
w ¼P
>
x; w Z 0: ð6Þ
Note that the constraints in (6) are linear in xA R
n
and wA R
m
.
Table 1 presents the tractable robust counterparts of an
uncertain linear optimization problem for different classes of
uncertainty sets. These robust counterparts are derived using the
three steps that are described above. However, we need conic
duality instead of LP duality in Step 2 to derive the tractable robust
counterparts for the conic uncertainty set; see the fourth row of
Table 1. Similarly, to derive the tractable RC for an uncertainty
region specified by general convex constraints, i.e., in the fifth row
of Table 1, we need Fenchel duality in Step 2; see Rockafellar [45]
for details on Fenchel duality, and Ben-Tal et al. [11] for the formal
proof of the associated RC reformulation. Notice that each RC
constraint has a positive safeguard in the constraint left-hand side,
e.g., J P
>
xJ
1
, J P
>
xJ
2
, and q
>
w; see the tractable RCs in the third
column of Table 1. These safeguards represent the level of
robustness that we introduce to the constraints. Note the equiva-
lence between the robust counterparts of the polyhedral and the
conic uncertainty set when K is the nonnegative orthant.
Nonlinear problems: Table 1 focuses on uncertain linear opti-
mization problems, i.e., both linear in the decision variables and
the uncertain parameters. Notice that, different than the presen-
ted results, the original uncertain optimization problem can be
nonlinear in the optimization variables and/or the uncertain
parameters; for more detailed treatment of such problems that
are nonlinear in the uncertain parameters, we refer to Ben-Tal
et al. [9, pp. 383–388] and Ben-Tal et al. [11].
Adversarial approach: If the robust counterpart cannot be
written as or approximated by a tractable reformulation, we
advocate to perform the so-called adversarial approach. The
adversarial approach starts with a finite set of scenarios S
i
Z
i
for the uncertain parameter in constraint i. For example, at the
start, S
i
only contains the nominal scenario. Then, the robust
optimization problem, which has a finite number of constraints
since Z
i
has been replaced by S
i
, is solved. If the resulting solution
is robust feasible, we have found the robust optimal solution. If
that is not the case, we can find a scenario for the uncertain
parameter that makes the last found solution infeasible, e.g., we
can search for the scenario that maximizes the infeasibility. We
add this scenario to S
i
, and solve the resulting robust optimization
problem, and so on. For a more detailed description, we refer to
Bienstock and Özbay [21]. It appeared that this simple approach
often converges to optimality in a few number of iterations. The
advantage of this approach is that solving the robust optimization
problem with S
i
instead of Z
i
in each iteration, preserves the
structure of the original optimization problem. Only constraints of
the same type are added, since constraint i should hold for all
scenarios in S
i
. This approach could be faster than reformulating,
even for polyhedral uncertainty sets. See Bertsimas et al. [20] for a
comparison. Alternatively, if the probability distribution of the
uncertain parameter is known, one may also use the randomized
sampling of the uncertainty set proposed by Calafiore and Campi
[23]. The randomized approach substitutes the infinitely many
robust constraints with a finite set of constraints that are
randomly sampled. It is shown that such a randomized approach
is an accurate approximation of the original uncertain problem
provided that a sufficient number of samples is drawn; see Campi
and Garatti [24, Theorem 1].
Pareto efficiency: Iancu and Trichakis [38] discovered that “the
inherent focus of RO on optimizing performance only under worst
case outcomes might leave decisions un-optimized in case a non-
worst case scenario materialized”. Therefore, the “classical” RO
framework might lead to a Pareto inefficient solution; i.e., an
alternative robust optimal solution may guarantee an improve-
ment in the objective or slack size for (at least) one scenario
without deteriorating it in other scenarios. Given a robust optimal
solution, Iancu and Trichakis propose optimizing a new problem to
Table 1
Tractable reformulations for the uncertain constraint [ðaþP
ζ
Þ
>
xr d 8
ζ
A Z] for different types of uncertainty sets.
Uncertainty Z Robust counterpart Tractability
Box
J
ζ
J
1
r 1
a
>
xþ J P
>
xJ
1
r d
LP
Ellipsoidal
J
ζ
J
2
r 1
a
>
xþ J P
>
xJ
2
r d
CQP
Polyhedral
D
ζ
þqZ 0
a
>
xþq
>
wr d
D
>
w ¼P
>
x
wZ 0
8
>
<
>
:
LP
Cone (closed, convex, pointed)
D
ζ
þqA K
a
>
xþq
>
wr d
D
>
w ¼P
>
x
wA K
n
8
>
<
>
:
Conic opt.
Convex cons.
h
k
ð
ζ
Þr 0 8k
a
>
xþ
P
k
u
k
h
n
k
w
k
u
k
r d
P
k
w
k
¼P
>
x
uZ 0
8
>
>
>
<
>
>
>
:
Convex opt.
n
h
n
is the convex conjugate function, i.e, h
n
ðxÞ¼sup
y
fx
>
yhðyÞg; and K
n
is the dual cone of K. Source: Ben-Tal et al. [11].
B.L. Gorissen et al. / Omega 53 (2015) 124–137126