Error with FMINCON - Failure in initial user-supplied objective function evaluation

Hi everybody,

I'm trying to run an optimization problem with FMINCON, but I keep getting the following error:

Error using ObjFun (line 3)
Not enough input arguments.
Error in fmincon (line 564)
    initVals.f = feval(funfcn{3},X,varargin{:});
Caused by:
  Failure in initial user-supplied objective function evaluation. FMINCON cannot continue.

This is the objective function:

function f= ObjFun (x,NumConnections,NodesToSearchFrom)
for t=1:NumConnections
  DistCN(:,t)=abs(x(t)-NodesToSearchFrom);
end
for t=1:NumConnections
  [Di(t), indx(t)]=min(DistCN(:,t));
end
f=sum(Di);

... and these are the constraints that are in another function:

function [c, ceq] = SideConstraints(x,NumConnections,NumInterNodes,UnfeasibleNodeArea,LowerBound,UpperBound,ConnectionCentre)
for k=1:NumConnections
  for q=1:NumInterNodes
      NodeConstraintsB(q,k)=x(k)-UnfeasibleNodeArea(q,1);
      NodeConstraintsA(q,k)=-x(k)+UnfeasibleNodeArea(q,2);
  end
end
c_B=reshape(NodeConstraintsB,[],1);
c_A=reshape(NodeConstraintsA,[],1);
c=[c_B;c_A;-x+LowerBound;x-UpperBound];
DistBetConnections=abs(ConnectionCentre(1)-ConnectionCentre(2));
ceq=[abs(x(1)-x(2))-DistBetConnections];

And the script to call the optimization procedure is this:

x0=[LowerBound; LowerBound+ConnectionCentre(2)];x=x0;
f= ObjFun (x,NumConnections,NodesToSearchFrom)
[c,ceq]=SideConstraints(x,NumConnections,NumInterNodes,UnfeasibleNodeArea,LowerBound,UpperBound,ConnectionCentre);
options=optimset('Display','iter');
OptimalResult=fmincon(@ObjFun,x0,[],[],[],[],[],[],@SideConstraints,options)

The general data is is another script but it's long so I didn't copy it here.

I've changed many things within the functions,including the input arguments but still can't work it out. I appreciate very much any help!

Best, Martha

Answer 1

[Walter Roberson]

OptimalResult = fmincon(@(x) ObjFun(x,NumConnections,NodesToSearchFrom), x0, [], [], [], [], [], [], @SideConstraints, options)

Provided that NumConnections and NodesToSearchFrom are static for any one optimization.

[Martha]

Thank you Walter,

Its the first time I'm trying to set up an optimization routine, so I'm a little bit lost. I tried the line that you wrote, and now I don't have any warnings regarding the Objective Function, but I do have the same warning for the Constraints (i.e. that I don't have enough input arguments).

Why does this happened?, it is because I'm not calling properly the constraints in the line with the fmincon?, or because the way I'm setting the constraints in the constraints function?

Best,

Martha

[Walter Roberson]

OptimalResult = fmincon(@(x) ObjFun(x, NumConnections, NodesToSearchFrom), x0, [], [], [], [], [], [], @(x) SideConstraints(x, NumConnections, NumInterNodes, UnfeasibleNodeArea, LowerBound, UpperBound, ConnectionCentre), options)