SLIDE 1
Linear Programming
- Linear programming is the simplest form of constrained optimization because the
- bjective function is linear.
- This implies that the minimum must lie on the boundary of the feasible region.
- We can specify a linear programming problem in so-called normal form as:
maximize
x
f cTx = subject to: Ax b = x ≥ where x Rn ∈ is the vector of decision variables, b Rm ∈ is a vector of constants which define the objective function f x ( ), A Rm
n ×
∈ is an m n × matrix with rank A ( ) m n ≤ = .
- x
≥
constrains each of the decision variables to be positive;
- Ax
b =
constrains x to one of the possibly infinite solutions to the linear system
- f equations.
- The x which satisfy both of these equations define the feasible region from
which we must choose x in order to maximize f x ( ).
- If m