Model-Based Engineering Design for Trade Space Exploration Throughout the Design Cycle

2004 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elisabeth Lamassoure ◽  
Stephen Wall ◽  
R. Easter
Keyword(s):  
Engineering Design ◽  
Space Exploration ◽  
Model Based ◽  
Design Cycle ◽  
Trade Space Exploration

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.

Supporting Trade Space Exploration of Multi-Dimensional Data With Interactive Multi-Scale Nested Clustering and Aggregation

2009 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaolong Luke Zhang ◽  
Timothy W. Simpson ◽  
Mary Frecker ◽  
George Lesieutre
Keyword(s):  
Knowledge Discovery ◽  
Engineering Design ◽  
Space Exploration ◽  
Prototype System ◽  
Data Sets ◽  
Design Data ◽  
User Interactions ◽  
Multi Scale ◽  
Data Clusters ◽  
Trade Space Exploration

Knowledge discovery in multi-dimensional data is a challenging problem in engineering design. For example, in trade space exploration of large design data sets, designers need to select a subset of data of interest and examine data from different data dimensions and within data clusters at different granularities. This exploration is a process that demands both humans, who can heuristically decide what data to explore and how best to explore it, and computers, which can quickly identify features that may be of interest in the data. Thus, to support this process of knowledge discovery, we need tools that go beyond traditional computer-oriented optimization approaches to support advanced designer-centered trade space exploration and data interaction. This paper is an effort to address this need. In particular, we propose the Interactive Multi-Scale Nested Clustering and Aggregation (iMSNCA) framework to support trade space exploration of multi-dimensional data common to design optimization. A system prototype of this framework is implemented to allow users to visually examine large design data sets through interactive data clustering, aggregation, and visualization. The paper also presents a case study involving morphing wing design using this prototype system. By using visual tools during trade space exploration, this research suggests a new approach to support knowledge discovery in engineering design by assisting diverse user tasks, by externalizing important characteristics of data sets, and by facilitating complex user interactions with data.

scholarly journals Core-Level Modeling and Frequency Prediction for DSP Applications on FPGAs

2015 ◽  
Vol 2015 ◽  
pp. 1-20
Author(s):  
Gongyu Wang ◽  
Greg Stitt ◽  
Herman Lam ◽  
Alan George
Keyword(s):  
High Performance ◽  
Design Space Exploration ◽  
Design Space ◽  
Space Exploration ◽  
Core Level ◽  
Prediction Methods ◽  
Clock Frequency ◽  
Worst Case ◽  
Model Based ◽  
Dsp Applications

Field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) provide a promising technology that can improve performance of many high-performance computing and embedded applications. However, unlike software design tools, the relatively immature state of FPGA tools significantly limits productivity and consequently prevents widespread adoption of the technology. For example, the lengthy design-translate-execute (DTE) process often must be iterated to meet the application requirements. Previous works have enabled model-based, design-space exploration to reduce DTE iterations but are limited by a lack of accurate model-based prediction of key design parameters, the most important of which is clock frequency. In this paper, we present a core-level modeling and design (CMD) methodology that enables modeling of FPGA applications at an abstract level and yet produces accurate predictions of parameters such as clock frequency, resource utilization (i.e., area), and latency. We evaluate CMD’s prediction methods using several high-performance DSP applications on various families of FPGAs and show an average clock-frequency prediction error of 3.6%, with a worst-case error of 20.4%, compared to the best of existing high-level prediction methods, 13.9% average error with 48.2% worst-case error. We also demonstrate how such prediction enables accurate design-space exploration without coding in a hardware-description language (HDL), significantly reducing the total design time.

Computational Design Synthesis: A Model-Based Approach for Complex Systems

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicolas Albarello ◽  
Jean-Baptiste Welcomme
Keyword(s):  
Design Space Exploration ◽  
Design Space ◽  
Space Exploration ◽  
Design Rules ◽  
System Architectures ◽  
Architecture Model ◽  
Model Based ◽  
Design Alternatives ◽  
Systems Architectures ◽  
The Impact

The design of systems architectures often involve a combinatorial design-space made of technological and architectural choices. A complete or large exploration of this design space requires the use of a method to generate and evaluate design alternatives. This paper proposes an innovative approach for the design-space exploration of systems architectures. The SAMOA (System Architecture Model-based OptimizAtion) tool associated to the method is also introduced. The method permits to create a large number of various system architectures combining a set of possible components to address given system functions. The method relies on models that are used to represent the problem and the solutions and to evaluate architecture performances. An algorithm first synthesizes design alternatives (a physical architecture associated to a functional allocation) based on the functional architecture of the system, the system interfaces, a library of available components and user-defined design rules. Chains of components are sequentially added to an initially empty architecture until all functions are fulfilled. The design rules permit to guarantee the viability and validity of the chains of components and, consequently, of the generated architectures. The design space exploration is then performed in a smart way through the use of an evolutionary algorithm, the evolution mechanisms of which are specific to system architecting. Evaluation modules permit to assess the performances of alternatives based on the structure of the architecture model and the data embedded in the component models. These performances are used to select the best generated architectures considering constraints and quality metrics. This selection is based on the Pareto-dominance-based NSGA-II algorithm or, alternatively, on an interactive preference-based algorithm. Iterating over this evolution-evaluation-selection process permits to increase the quality of solutions and, thus, to highlight the regions of interest of the design-space which can be used as a base for further manual investigations. By using this method, the system designers have a larger confidence in the optimality of the adopted architecture than using a classical derivative approach as many more solutions are evaluated. Also, the method permits to quickly evaluate the trade-offs between the different considered criteria. Finally, the method can also be used to evaluate the impact of a technology on the system performances not only by a substituting a technology by another but also by adapting the architecture of the system.

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