Evaluation of industrial machine design improvement ideas using characteristic-based hierarchical optimisation strategies

Design optimisation technologies are a practical requirement when aiming to obtain optimal product design variable values from an initially given feasible design space, but such technologies also can contribute to the generation of more effective product design alternatives, namely, product design innovations. This paper proposes an effective evaluation method that enables improvement of product design ideas, using characteristic-based hierarchical optimisation strategies applicable to industrial machine products. After related characteristics are decomposed into simpler characteristics, or simpler characteristics are extracted from higher level characteristics, new optimisation strategies are constructed based on clarification of the relationships among all the characteristics. Innovative processes that lead to product design improvements are analysed in detail by examining optimum solutions for various design improvement ideas, using displays of Pareto optimum solution lines or surfaces. The proposed system design optimisation method that is based on evaluations of evolutional Pareto optimum solutions is presented and exemplified here using an articulated robot product design, and applied at the conceptual product design stage.