TMB : Automatic Differentiation and Laplace Approximation

TMB is an open source R package that enables quick implementation of complex nonlinear random effects (latent variable) models in a manner similar to the established AD Model Builder package (ADMB, http://admb-project.org/; Fournier et al. 2011). In addition, it offers easy access to parallel computations. The user defines the joint likelihood for the data and the random effects as a C++ template function, while all the other operations are done in R; e.g., reading in the data. The package evaluates and maximizes the Laplace approximation of the marginal likelihood where the random effects are automatically integrated out. This approximation, and its derivatives, are obtained using automatic differentiation…