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Geometric numerical integration has recently been exploited to design symplectic accelerated optimization algorithms by simulating the Bregman Lagrangian and Hamiltonian systems from the variational framework introduced by Wibisono et al. In this paper, we discuss practical considerations which can significantly boost the computational performance of these optimization algorithms and considerably simplify the tuning process. In particular, we investigate how momentum restarting schemes ameliorate computational efficiency and robustness by reducing the undesirable effect of oscillations and ease the tuning process by making time-adaptivity superfluous. We also discuss how temporal looping helps avoiding instability issues caused by numerical precision, without harming the computational efficiency of the algorithms. Finally, we compare the efficiency and robustness of different geometric integration techniques and study the effects of the different parameters in the algorithms to inform and simplify tuning in practice. From this paper emerge symplectic accelerated optimization algorithms whose computational efficiency, stability and robustness have been improved, and which are now much simpler to use and tune for practical applications. 

Incorporating prior knowledge of physics laws and structural properties of dynamical systems into the design of deep learning architectures has proven to be a powerful technique for improving their computational efficiency and generalization capacity. Learning accurate models of robot dynamics is critical for safe and stable control. Autonomous mobile robots, including wheeled, aerial, and underwater vehicles, can be modeled as controlled Lagrangian or Hamiltonian rigid-body systems evolving on matrix Lie groups. In this paper, we introduce a new structure-preserving deep learning architecture, the Lie group Forced Variational Integrator Network (LieFVIN), capable of learning controlled Lagrangian or Hamiltonian dynamics on Lie groups, either from position-velocity or position-only data. By design, LieFVINs preserve both the Lie group structure on which the dynamics evolve and the symplectic structure underlying the Hamiltonian or Lagrangian systems of interest. The proposed architecture learns surrogate discrete-time flow maps allowing accurate and fast prediction without numerical-integrator, neural-ODE, or adjoint techniques, which are needed for vector fields. Furthermore, the learnt discrete-time dynamics can be utilized with computationally scalable discrete-time (optimal) control strategies. 

Riemannian submanifold optimization with momentum is computationally challenging because, to ensure that the iterates remain on the submanifold, we often need to solve difficult differential equations. Here, we simplify such difficulties for a class of structured symmetric positive-definite matrices with the affine-invariant metric. We do so by proposing a generalized version of the Riemannian normal coordinates that dynamically orthonormalizes the metric and locally converts the problem into an unconstrained problem in the Euclidean space. We use our approach to simplify existing approaches for structured covariances and develop matrix-inverse-free 2nd-order optimizers for deep learning in low precision settings. 

A variational framework for accelerated optimization was recently introduced on normed vector spaces and Riemannian manifolds in [1] and [2]. It was observed that a careful combination of time-adaptivity and symplecticity in the numerical integration can result in a significant gain in computational efficiency. It is however well known that symplectic integrators lose their near-energy preservation properties when variable time-steps are used. The most common approach to circumvent this problem involves the Poincaré transformation on the Hamiltonian side, and was used in [3] to construct efficient explicit algorithms for symplectic accelerated optimization. However, the current formulations of Hamiltonian variational integrators do not make intrinsic sense on more general spaces such as Riemannian manifolds and Lie groups. In contrast, Lagrangian variational integrators are well-defined on manifolds, so we develop here a framework for time-adaptivity in Lagrangian variational integrators and use the resulting geometric integrators to solve optimization problems on vector spaces and Lie groups. 

A variational formulation for accelerated optimization on normed vector spaces was recently introduced in Wibisono et al. (PNAS 113:E7351–E7358, 2016), and later generalized to the Riemannian manifold setting in Duruisseaux and Leok (SJMDS, 2022a). This variational framework was exploited on normed vector spaces in Duruisseaux et al. (SJSC 43:A2949–A2980, 2021) using time-adaptive geometric integrators to design efficient explicit algorithms for symplectic accelerated optimization, and it was observed that geometric discretizations which respect the time-rescaling invariance and symplecticity of the Lagrangian and Hamiltonian flows were substantially less prone to stability issues, and were therefore more robust, reliable, and computationally efficient. As such, it is natural to develop time-adaptive Hamiltonian variational integrators for accelerated optimization on Riemannian manifolds. In this paper, we consider the case of Riemannian manifolds embedded in a Euclidean space that can be characterized as the level set of a submersion. We will explore how holonomic constraints can be incorporated in discrete variational integrators to constrain the numerical discretization of the Riemannian Hamiltonian system to the Riemannian manifold, and we will test the performance of the resulting algorithms by solving eigenvalue and Procrustes problems formulated as optimization problems on the unit sphere and Stiefel manifold.