Method and device for assessing the quality of an optimization-based control signal prior to its use in a technical system

A computer-implemented method for assessing the quality of a solution from an optimization process configured to solve a constrained quadratic problem (QP) the method comprising:

• initiating an execution of an active-set (AS) optimization process configured to solve the constrained QP;
• obtaining a first solution vector and an associated active set of constraints from the execution of the AS optimization process;
• substituting variables in the constrained QP in accordance with the active set of constraints to form an associated unconstrained QP, wherein the variable substitution reduces the dimensionality by the number of constraints in the active set;
• initiating an execution of a second optimization process configured to solve the associated unconstrained QP;
• obtaining a second solution vector from the execution of the second optimization process, including undoing the variable substitution;
• and
• generating a quality indicator for the first solution vector on the basis of a difference between the first and the second solution vectors.