MANAGING FUNCTIONAL TRADE-OFFS IN THE MECHANICAL DESIGN OF INTEGRATED PRODUCTS USING MULTIOBJECTIVE MONOTONICITY ANALYSIS

Abstract

AbstractWith the continuously increasing integration of (mechanical) products, the identification and management of trade-offs becomes a major task in product synthesis, with substantial effect on optimality and robustness of the final solution. At the same time, a rigorous and comprehensive study of trade-offs through mathematical design optimisation is often impractical in design, as efforts spent on modeling and optimizing are likely wasted if a chosen design is changed. Extending research on configuration redesign based on a multiobjective monotonicty analysis (MOMA), this paper presents three levels of evaluation for early design or redesign: (I) informal evaluation, (II) opportunistic evaluation, and (III) exhaustive evaluation. The chosen level depends on what knowledge the designer wants to gain, and the higher the level, the larger the analysis effort, the lesser the re-use of the information gained from the initial MOMA analysis respectively. The approach is illustrated using a novel drug delivery device, the Self-Orienting Millimeter-Scale Applicator (SOMA), for the oral delivery of protein compounds such as insulin.