MATLAB: What cause fmincon stop prematurely

constraintconstraint minimizationfminconminimizationoptimization

I have a constrained minimization problem with objective function (in simplified form)
z=b1+p1*log(p1/(p1+p2+p3))+b2+p2*log(p2/(p1+p2+p3))+b3+p3*log(p3/(p1+p2+p3))
where 
b1=a1*2,%(a1 is a constant input)
b2=a2*3,%(a2 is a constant input)
b3=a3*4,%(a3 is a constant input)
and constraints
2*p1+3*p2=A1,%(A1 is a constant input)
3*p2+5*p3=A2,%(A2 is a constant input)
p1>=0,
p2>=0,
p3>=0,
so, I wrote on my script 
a1=input('a1=');
a2=input('a2=');
a3=input('a3=');
A1=input('A1=');
A2=input('A2=');
A=[-1,0,0;0,-1,0,0;0,0,-1];B=[0;0;0];Aeq=[2,3,0;0,3,5];Beq=[A1;A2];
optimal_p1p2p3=fmincon(@fozw,[0.1;0.1;0.1],A,B,Aeq,Beq);
function z=fozw(w);
p1=w(1);p2=w(2);p3=w(3);
z=b1+p1*log(p1/(p1+p2+p3))+b2+p2*log(p2/(p1+p2+p3))+b3+p3*log(p3/(p1+p2+p3));
end
end
Then, when I run the script. It  appeared on command window 
solver has stop prematurely
fmincon stop because it exceeded function evaluation limit
optimal_p1p2p3=
NaN
NaN
NaN
What is the possible error?.

Best Answer

Your function has logarithms and division. It seems to me quite likely that fmincon steps into a region where the function is undefined, and cannot proceed.
I suggest that you do two things:
  • Ensure that your initial point x0 evaluates to a finite value.
  • Use the interior-point algorithm, which is robust to occasional evaluation failures.
Good luck,
Alan Weiss
MATLAB mathematical toolbox documentation
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