Fitting conditional functions in nls

Question

I'm trying to fit two equations with nls() function in R. The two functions are:

$f(x) = c_{1} \exp\left(-\left(\frac{x-\mu}{\sigma_{(x)}}\right)^2\right)$

where $\sigma_{(x)} = \sigma_{11}$ if $x \le \mu$ and $\sigma_{(x)} = \sigma_{12}$ if $x > \mu$

and

$f(x) = a K \exp\left(- \frac{a}{b} \exp\left(-b x\right) - bx\right)$

Below is my attempt with factitious data:

x <- seq(from = 17, to = 47, by = 5)
y <- c(26.2, 173.6, 233.9, 185.9, 115.4, 62.0, 21.7)
Data <- data.frame(y, x)
Fit1 <- nls(formula =  y ~ if (x <= Mu) Mean <- c1*exp(-((x-Mu)/Sigma11)^2) else Mean     <- c1*exp(-((x-Mu)/Sigma12)^2),
                 data = Data, start = list(c1 = 240, Mu = 25, Sigma11 = 5, Sigma12 = 14), trace = TRUE)



Fit2 <- nls(formula =  y~K*a*exp(-(a/b)*exp(-b*x)-b*x), data = Data,
                start = list(K=4250, a=10, b=0.1), trace = TRUE)

Both codes produce Error and Warning messages. Any help to figure out these problems will be highly appreciated. Thanks

Answer 1

In the first case, nls will not digest any ifs or other higher expressions... you may use ifelse, however this may make this function too complex to effectively fit it -- nls is not a magic wand.

In the second case, the standard algorithm dies on numerical error -- the usual approach in this case is to alter starting point or change the used method; for instance

Fit2<-nls(y~K*a*exp(-(a/b)*exp(-b*x)-b*x),Data,
 start=list(K=4250,a=10,b=0.1),trace=T,algorithm="port")

do converge (consult ?nls for a list of methods).