No Sigmoid Required: Exact Feasibility for Constrained EHVI
Abstract
Constrained multi-objective optimization is essential for engineering design, requiring sample-efficient batch evaluation strategies due to costly simulations. Although Bayesian optimization using CEHVI is highly effective, estimating its probability of feasibility (PoF) relies on a sigmoid relaxation, which introduces bias and a tunable parameter. Na\"ive marginalization can eliminate the sigmoid, but we find that it can lead to overestimation of the acquisition function for when running points are spatially concentrated. This paper theoretically analyzes this error's source and derives an unbiased, low-variance Rao-Blackwellized (RB) estimator that replaces the candidate feasibility indicator with its exact conditional expectation. Using a synthetic problem that reproduces a concentrated scenario, we first verify that the RB approach suppresses the overestimation in the infeasible region. Furthermore, our approach resolves the sigmoid-induced PoF overestimation, improving sample efficiency near the feasibility boundary. Experiments on real-world benchmark problems demonstrate that our method yields stable performance, eliminating the parameter sensitivity of the sigmoid relaxation.
est. 32% chance this paper gets accepted at ICLR 2027.
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