TOMLAB /MIDACO

TOMLAB /MIDACO is a derivative-free heuristic black-box optimizer, specially developed for mixed integer nonlinear programs (MINLPs). As the class of MINLPs covers purely continuous (NLP) and purely combinatorial optimization problems (IP), MIDACO can be employed on a wide range of optimization problems. Its usage is particularly intended for global optimization problems, where the problem formulation is unknown (true black-box) or invokes critical properties like non-convexity, discontinuities, flat spots or stochastic distortions or noise.

MIDACO is suitable for problems with up to several hundreds to some thousands of optimization variables.

The underlying numerical algorithm is based on a stochastic Gauss approximation technique (also known as Ant Colony Optimization) and its combination with the oracle penalty method. It's development was focused especially on constrained mixed integer nonlinear programming (MINLP) problems, but due to the generality of this problem class, the software is well applicable on many different kind of optimization problems. MIDACO is constructed as a derivative free black-box solver, handling all its parameters by itself.

For cpu-time expensive applications, MIDACO offers an efficient parallelization strategy.