Evolutionary optimization within an intelligent hybrid system for design integration

An intelligent hybrid approach has been developed to integrate various stages in total design, including formulation of productdesign specifications,conceptualdesign, detail design, and manufacture.The integration is achieved by blending multiple artificial intelligence (AI) techniquesand CAD/CAE/CAM into a single environment. It has been applied into power transmissionsystem design. In addition to knowledge-basedsystems and artificial neural networks, another AI technique, genetic algorithms (GAs), are involved in the approach. The GA is used to conduct optimization tasks: (I) searching the best combination of design parameters to obtain optimum design of gears, and (2) optimization of the architecture of the artificial neural networks used in the hybrid system. In this paper, after a brief overview of the intelligent hybrid system, the GA applications are described in detail.