Nonlinear Programming Solvers for Unconstrained and Constrained Optimization Problems: a Benchmark Analysis

In this paper we propose a set of guidelines to select a solver for the solution of nonlinear programming problems. With this in mind, we present a comparison of the convergence performances of commonly used solvers for both unconstrained and constrained nonlinear programming problems. The comparison involves accuracy, convergence rate, and convergence speed. Because of its popularity among research teams in academia and industry, MATLAB is used as common implementation platform for the solvers. Our study includes solvers which are either freely available, or require a license, or are fully described in literature. In addition, we differentiate solvers if they allow the selection of different optimal search methods. As result, we examine the performances of 23 algorithms to solve 60 benchmark problems. To enrich our analysis, we will describe how, and to what extent, convergence speed and accuracy can be improved by changing the inner settings of each solver.