Robust optimization of contaminant sensor placement for community water systems.

Journal Article · Wed Sep 01 04:00:00 EDT 2004 · Proposed for publication in Mathematical Programming Series B.

OSTI ID:990958

Konjevod, Goran ^[1]; Carr, Robert D; Greenberg, Harvey J ^[2]; Hart, William Eugene; Morrison, Tod ^[2]; Phillips, Cynthia Ann; Lin, Henry ^[3]; Lauer, Erik

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1. Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ
2. University of Colorado at Denver, Denver, CO
3. University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, CA

We present a series of related robust optimization models for placing sensors in municipal water networks to detect contaminants that are maliciously or accidentally injected.We formulate sensor placement problems as mixed-integer programs, for which the objective coefficients are not known with certainty. We consider a restricted absolute robustness criteria that is motivated by natural restrictions on the uncertain data, and we define three robust optimization models that differ in how the coefficients in the objective vary. Under one set of assumptions there exists a sensor placement that is optimal for all admissible realizations of the coefficients. Under other assumptions, we can apply sorting to solve each worst-case realization efficiently, or we can apply duality to integrate the worst-case outcome and have one integer program. The most difficult case is where the objective parameters are bilinear, and we prove its complexity is NP-hard even under simplifying assumptions. We consider a relaxation that provides an approximation, giving an overall guarantee of nearoptimality when used with branch-and-bound search. We present preliminary computational experiments that illustrate the computational complexity of solving these robust formulations on sensor placement applications.

• Research Organization: Sandia National Laboratories
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• DOE Contract Number: AC04-94AL85000
• OSTI ID: 990958
• Report Number(s): SAND2004-4530J
• Journal Information: Proposed for publication in Mathematical Programming Series B., Journal Name: Proposed for publication in Mathematical Programming Series B. Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 107; ISSN 0025-5610
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATION
DETECTION
POLLUTANTS
POSITIONING
PUBLIC UTILITIES
SENSORS
WATER SUPPLY