Toward a Value-Driven Design Approach for Complex Engineered Systems Using Trade Space Exploration Tools

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon W. Miller ◽  
Timothy W. Simpson ◽  
Michael A. Yukish ◽  
Gary Stump ◽  
Bryan L. Mesmer ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Data Visualization ◽  
Space Exploration ◽  
Systems Design ◽  
Design Decision ◽  
Value Functions ◽  
Complex Engineered Systems ◽  
A Value ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Engineered Systems ◽  
Trade Space Exploration

Design decision-making involves trade-offs between many design variables and attributes, which can be difficult to model and capture in complex engineered systems. To choose the best design, the decision-maker is often required to analyze many different combinations of these variables and attributes and process the information internally. Trade Space Exploration (TSE) tools, including interactive and multi-dimensional data visualization, can be used to aid in this process and provide designers with a means to make better decisions, particularly during the design of complex engineered systems. In this paper, we investigate the use of TSE tools to support decision-makers using a Value-Driven Design (VDD) approach for complex engineered systems. A VDD approach necessitates a rethinking of trade space exploration. In this paper, we investigate the different uses of trade space exploration in a VDD context. We map a traditional TSE process into a value-based trade environment to provide greater decision support to a design team during complex systems design. The research leverages existing TSE paradigms and multi-dimensional data visualization tools to identify optimal designs using a value function for a system. The feasibility of using these TSE tools to help formulate value functions is also explored. A satellite design example is used to demonstrate the differences between a VDD approach to design complex engineered systems and a multi-objective approach to capture the Pareto frontier. Ongoing and future work is also discussed.

A Preliminary Study of Novice and Expert Users’ Decision-Making Procedures During Visual Trade Space Exploration

2009 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Wolf ◽  
Timothy W. Simpson ◽  
Xiaolong Luke Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Engineering Design ◽  
Data Visualization ◽  
Space Exploration ◽  
Computational Thinking ◽  
Test Group ◽  
Design Decision ◽  
Ongoing Research ◽  
Trade Space Exploration ◽  
Insight Into

Thanks to recent advances in computing power and speed, designers can now generate a wealth of data on demand to support engineering design decision-making. Unfortunately, while the ability to generate and store new data continues to grow, methods and tools to support multi-dimensional data exploration have evolved at a much slower pace. Moreover, current methods and tools are often ill-equipped at accommodating evolving knowledge sources and expert-driven exploration that is being enabled by computational thinking. In this paper, we discuss ongoing research that seeks to transform decades-old decision-making paradigms rooted in operations research by considering how to effectively convert data into knowledge that enhances decision-making and leads to better designs. Specifically, we address decision-making within the area of trade space exploration by conducting human-computer interaction studies using multi-dimensional data visualization software that we have been developing. We first discuss a Pilot Study that was conducted to gain insight into expected differences between novice and expert decision-makers using a small test group. We then present the results of two Preliminary Experiments designed to gain insight into procedural differences in how novices and experts use multi-dimensional data visualization and exploration tools and to measure their ability to use these tools effectively when solving an engineering design problem. This work supports our goal of developing training protocols that support efficient and effective trade space exploration.

scholarly journals Adding Value to Trade Space Exploration When Designing Complex Engineered Systems

2017 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 131-146 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy W. Simpson ◽  
Simon Miller ◽  
Elliott B. Tibor ◽  
Michael A. Yukish ◽  
Gary Stump ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Space Exploration ◽  
Complex Engineered Systems ◽  
Engineered Systems ◽  
Trade Space Exploration

The Importance of Training for Interactive Trade Space Exploration: A Study of Novice and Expert Users

2011 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
David Wolf ◽  
Jennifer Hyland ◽  
Timothy W. Simpson ◽  
Xiaolong (Luke) Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Space Exploration ◽  
Design Decision ◽  
Support Design ◽  
Computing Power ◽  
Training Video ◽  
Engine Combustion ◽  
Interactive Data ◽  
Effectiveness And Efficiency ◽  
Trade Space Exploration ◽  
Future Work

Thanks to recent advances in computing power and speed, engineers can now generate a wealth of data on demand to support design decision-making. These advances have enabled new approaches to search multidimensional trade spaces through interactive data visualization and exploration. In this paper, we investigate the effectiveness and efficiency of interactive trade space exploration strategies by conducting human subject experiments with novice and expert users. A single objective, constrained design optimization problem involving the sizing of an engine combustion chamber is used for this study. Effectiveness is measured by comparing the best feasible design obtained by each user, and efficiency is assessed based on the percentage of feasible designs generated by each user. Results indicate that novices who watch a 5-min training video before the experiment obtain results that are not significantly different from those obtained by expert users, and both groups are statistically better than the novices without the training video in terms of effectiveness and efficiency. Frequency and ordering of the visualization and exploration tools are also compared to understand the differences in each group’s search strategy. The implications of the results are discussed along with future work.

scholarly journals A Case for Security-Aware Design-Space Exploration of Embedded Systems

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 22
Author(s):  
Andy D. Pimentel
Keyword(s):  
Embedded Systems ◽  
Embedded System ◽  
Design Space Exploration ◽  
Design Space ◽  
Space Exploration ◽  
Systems Design ◽  
Design System ◽  
Multi Objective Optimization ◽  
Multi Objective ◽  
Trade Offs

As modern embedded systems are becoming more and more ubiquitous and interconnected, they attract a world-wide attention of attackers and the security aspect is more important than ever during the design of those systems. Moreover, given the ever-increasing complexity of the applications that run on these systems, it becomes increasingly difficult to meet all security criteria. While extra-functional design objectives such as performance and power/energy consumption are typically taken into account already during the very early stages of embedded systems design, system security is still mostly considered as an afterthought. That is, security is usually not regarded in the process of (early) design-space exploration of embedded systems, which is the critical process of multi-objective optimization that aims at optimizing the extra-functional behavior of a design. This position paper argues for the development of techniques for quantifying the ’degree of secureness’ of embedded system design instances such that these can be incorporated in a multi-objective optimization process. Such technology would allow for the optimization of security aspects of embedded systems during the earliest design phases as well as for studying the trade-offs between security and the other design objectives such as performance, power consumption and cost.

scholarly journals Improving the Performance of Visual Steering Commands for Multi-Dimensional Trade Space Exploration

2008 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher D. Congdon ◽  
Daniel E. Carlsen ◽  
Timothy W. Simpson ◽  
Jay D. Martin
Keyword(s):  
Optimization Problems ◽  
Space Exploration ◽  
Engineering Application ◽  
Region Of Interest ◽  
Monte Carlo Sampling ◽  
Test Problems ◽  
Design Decision ◽  
Support Design ◽  
Exploration Process ◽  
Trade Space Exploration

Designers perform many tasks when developing new products and systems, and making decisions may be among the most important of these tasks. The trade space exploration process advocated in this work provides a visual and intuitive approach for formulating and solving single- and multi-objective optimization problems to support design decision-making. In this paper, we introduce an advanced sampling method to improve the performance of the visual steering commands that have been developed to explore and navigate the trade space. This method combines speciation and crowding operations used within the Differential Evolution (DE) algorithm to generate new samples near the region of interest. The accuracy and diversity of the resulting samples are compared against simple Monte Carlo sampling as well as the current implementation of the visual steering commands using a suite of test problems and an engineering application. The proposed method substantially increases the efficiency and effectiveness of the sampling process while maintaining diversity within the trade space.

Ontology-Based Representation of Meta-Design in Designing Decision Workflows

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ru Wang ◽  
Guoxin Wang ◽  
Yan Yan ◽  
Maryam Sabeghi ◽  
Zhenjun Ming ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making Process ◽  
Thermal System ◽  
Design Decision ◽  
Design Processes ◽  
Future Design ◽  
Complex Engineered Systems ◽  
Hierarchical Decision ◽  
Enterprise Agility ◽  
Engineered Systems ◽  
Product And Process

Utilizing the enterprise capital related the knowledge of design processes has become a crucial to improve enterprise agility and respond to shifts or changes in markets. The complexity and uncertainty of design processes raise the challenge of capturing tacit knowledge and the ability to provide assistance in designing design processes. In this paper, an ontology is proposed for capturing, representing and documenting the knowledge related to hierarchical decision workflows in the meta-design of complex engineered systems. The ontology is developed in the context of Decision Support Problem Technique (DSPT), taking into account the requirements being able to guide assistance in designing design workflows, and integrating problem, product and process information in a design decision-making process. Then, the method of building procedure and design of process templates are presented to facilitate the reuse of the populated template instances in future design. Finally, the meta-design of the heat exchanger in a small thermal system is presented as an example to illustrate the effectiveness of this approach.

Complex Engineered Systems Design Verification Based on Assume-Guarantee Reasoning

2016 ◽  
Vol 19 (6) ◽  
pp. 461-476 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hoda Mehrpouyan ◽  
Dimitra Giannakopoulou ◽  
Guillaume Brat ◽  
Irem Y. Tumer ◽  
Chris Hoyle
Keyword(s):  
Systems Design ◽  
Design Verification ◽  
Complex Engineered Systems ◽  
Engineered Systems

Ontology-Based Representation of Meta-Design in Designing Decision Workflows

2018 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ru Wang ◽  
Guoxin Wang ◽  
Yan Yan ◽  
Maryam Sabeghi ◽  
Zhenjun Ming ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making Process ◽  
Thermal System ◽  
Design Decision ◽  
Design Processes ◽  
Future Design ◽  
Complex Engineered Systems ◽  
Hierarchical Decision ◽  
Enterprise Agility ◽  
Engineered Systems ◽  
Product And Process

Utilizing the enterprise capital related the knowledge of design processes has become crucial to improve enterprise agility and respond to shifts or changes in markets. The complexity and uncertainty of design raise the challenge of capturing tacit knowledge and the ability to aid in designing design processes. In this paper, ontology is proposed for capturing, representing, and documenting the knowledge related to hierarchical decision workflows in the meta-design of complex engineered systems. The ontology is developed in the context of decision support problem technique (DSPT), considering the requirements being able to guide assistance in designing design workflows, and integrating problem, product, and process information in a design decision-making process. Then, the approach for building procedure of process templates is presented to facilitate the reuse of the populated template instances in future design. Finally, the meta-design of the heat exchanger in a small thermal system is presented as an example to illustrate the effectiveness of this approach.

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