André Jordan

The Autogenetic Design Theory: An evolutionary view of the design process

The design activity is the substantial activity within the product development process. The purpose of the Autogenetic Design Theory (ADT) is to view the genesis of a product during the design process as an analogy to the (technical) evolution of living creatures, to describe the design process as a continuous development process of technique and technology, and, by this, to provide a better understanding of the nature of the design process. Evolution means gradual development, permanent adaptation, and optimization towards an aim that may also change itself during the evolution. Both the development of a new product (new or original design) or the change of an existing product (adaptation design) can be described from the evolutionary view as a continuous optimization of a basic solution by observing starting conditions, boundary conditions, and constraints (which may evolve themselves, as well). The description and the modelling of all procedures within the design process are furthermore components of the ADT. A first implementation of the ADT deals with a support system for the multicriterial optimization of products. A broad range of industrial applications has been successfully accomplished.

Optimisation of a bow riser using the autogenetic design theory

The autogenetic design theory (ADT) is an approach aiming at modelling and supporting the design activity as the primary activity within the product development process. A new product development model must consider the mixed process of searching, adopting existing knowledge, learning, evaluating, selecting, and combining. Such methodologies are also found in biological evolution (the corresponding activities there are replication, evaluation, selection, recombination). The ADT is based on the idea that new solutions (individuals) can be developed by the use of evolutionary methodologies. Under the pressure of selection, good properties of the preceding solutions (parents) are passed on to the succeeding solutions (children). \noindent Typically, the riser of a recurve bow has to be of light weight and high stiffness. The challenge for the designer is to find the solution which best meets both demands. Due to the large number of technically possible designs, it is inefficient to model and evaluate more than a few designs manually. By applying the ADT, the designer has the ability to consider a large number of possible designs, which raises the probability of finding the best possible solution. In this case, the ADT allows us to reduce the mass by 22% while keeping the stiffness at the same level.

Lightweight design optimization of a Bow Riser in Olympic Archery applying evolutionary computing

Recurve bows that are used in competitions like the Olympic Games are high-technology products. Good risers are lightweight but retain a high stiffness. The aim of this study was to design a riser with a stiffness comparable to that of the lightest riser currently used by the archers of the German National Archery Team, but with a considerably reduced weight. We computed the loads that are applied to a riser of a drawn recurve bow (the RADIAN model used by the German team) and created a 3-D solid CAD model of a riser with 24 variable parameters. We used evolutionary computing to optimize the 24 parameters of the model according to these criteria. We selected the most optimal riser out of the 1650 CAD models generated, manufactured it, and had it tested by three archers of the German National Archery Team. The mass of our manufactured riser is 871g, which is 243g or 22% less mass than the RADIAN riser.

Autogenetic Design Theory: An Approach to Optimise Both the Design Process and the Product

The paper presents a new approach aiming at modeling and supporting the design activity as the substantial activity within the product development process. The Autogenetic Design Theory facilitates the integration of intuition, creativity and artificial intelligence into the conventional design process. To this end, a phase-like allocation of the design process is assumed as the essential structure and an evolutionary algorithm is integrated as the core facilitating purposeful searching and combining. Hence, the flow of the design process can be influenced as all requirements can be included and, on the other hand, intuition and creativity are ensured through the evolutionary algorithm. The example of the shift fork, which was described in the paper, shows how ADT can support variant design. Next steps will include the application of the ADT to the other types of design. The optimisation of the shift fork was the first step towards a computer-based implementation of the ADT.Copyright

Prototypeinsatz evolutionärer Algorithmen in der Motorenentwicklung bei Volkswagen

Wie entsteht ein neues Produkt oder eine neuartige Losung? Immer schnellere Fahrzeugmodellwechsel verlangen einen immer besseren Produktentstehungsprozess. In einem gemeinsamen Forschungsprojekt zwischen Volkswagen und der Universitat Magdeburg wurde hierzu ein Verfahren zur Anpassungskonstruktion entwickelt, welches auf der autogenetischen Konstruktionstheorie (AKT) aufsetzt. Der Lehrstuhl fur Maschinenbauinformatik hat hierfur den Prototypen eines Programmsystems entwickelt, mit dem bereits verschiedene Aufgabenstellungen aus der Motorenentwicklung bearbeitet worden sind.

Optimization of a Recurve Bow Riser Using Evolutionary Computing

In the Olympic competitions the so-called recurve bows are used in archery. Typical characteristics of a good bow riser are little weight and high stiffness. Hence a trend in the design of risers is to reduce weight without loosing other properties. The aim of this study was to design a riser with a considerably reduced weight at a quite similar stiffness compared to the lightest riser (1114g) that is used by archers of the German National Archery Team. A parametric CAD model of the riser was designed and optimized using evolutionary computing. Best model was selected out of 1650, and a riser was manufactured with a forged aluminum alloy (AS 28) using a CNC milling machine. A test of the riser in practice by archers of the German National Archery Team succeeded: the riser is not only very stiff and light (871g) but also damps the vibrations after the shot very well.