A set-based-inspired design process supported by axiomatic design and interactive evolutionary algorithms

This paper presents an approach towards a set-based design-inspired concept development process for products with a solution space consisting principally of different solution alternatives and parameterised variants of these. The hypothesis is that such a concept development process can be based on traditional synthesis methods, an SBD-inspired elimination strategy, axiomatic design and interactive Evolutionary Algorithms (IEAs) for the synthesis of solution candidates and the successive reduction of the solution space. Axiomatic design and its axioms are used to evaluate and eliminate unfeasible alternatives, whereas IEAs, combined with human judgement, are employed for the evaluation and elimination of variants. Stated criteria specifying a design problem can be of different kinds with different ontologies described by different authors. This study focuses on functional, constraining and qualitative criteria. Results from performed industrial case studies show that the proposed method can reduce the lead time in design work.