Axel,
Your objective function has the wrong sign. The maximum is infinity, so it does not make sense to maximize. YOu should be minimizing the product. So, remove the negative sign and it works as you had expected. ff <- function (x) { mm <- matrix(c(10, 25, 5, 10), 2, 2) matx <- matrix(x, 2, 2) # - sum(apply(mm ^ matx, 1, prod)) # this is the problem sum(apply(mm ^ matx, 1, prod)) } ### constraints heq <- function(x) { h <- rep(NA, 1) h[1] <- x[1] + x[3] -1 h[2] <- x[2] + x[4] -1 h[3] <- x[1] * x[3] h[4] <- x[2] * x[4] h } res <- auglag(par = rep(1,4), fn = ff, heq = heq) Ravi ________________________________ From: Axel Urbiz [axel.ur...@gmail.com] Sent: Sunday, February 10, 2013 3:16 PM To: R-help@r-project.org; Ravi Varadhan Subject: Constrained Optimization in R (alabama) Dear List, I'm trying to solve this simple optimization problem in R. The parameters are the exponents to the matrix mm. The constraints specify that each row of the parameter matrix should sum to 1 and their product to 0. I don't understand why the constraints are not satisfied at the solution. I must be misinterpreting how to specify the constrains somehow. library(alabama) ff <- function (x) { mm <- matrix(c(10, 25, 5, 10), 2, 2) matx <- matrix(x, 2, 2) -sum(apply(mm ^ matx, 1, prod)) } ### constraints heq <- function(x) { h <- rep(NA, 1) h[1] <- x[1] + x[3] -1 h[2] <- x[2] + x[4] -1 h[3] <- x[1] * x[3] h[4] <- x[2] * x[4] h } res <- constrOptim.nl(par = c(1, 1, 1, 1), fn = ff, heq = heq) res$convergence #why NULL? matrix(round(res$par, 2), 2, 2) #why constraints are not satisfied? Axel. [[alternative HTML version deleted]] ______________________________________________ R-help@r-project.org mailing list https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.