Pareto Frontier Based Concept Selection under Uncertainty, with Visualization

In a recent publication, we presented a new multiobjective decision-making tool for use in conceptual engineering design. In the present paper, we provide important developments that support the next phase in the evolution of the tool. These developments, together with those of our previous work, provide a concept selection approach that capitalizes on the benefits of computational optimization. Specifically, the new approach uses the efficiency and effectiveness of optimization to rapidly compare numerous designs, and characterize the tradeoff properties within the multiobjective design space. As such, the new approach differs significantly from traditional (non-optimization based) concept selection approaches where, comparatively speaking, significant time is often spent evaluating only a few points in the design space. Under the new approach, design concepts are evaluated using a so-called s-Pareto frontier; this frontier originates from the Pareto frontiers of various concepts, and is the Pareto frontier for the set of design concepts. An important characteristic of the s-Pareto frontier is that it provides a foundation for analyzing tradeoffs between design objectives and the tradeoffs between design concepts. The new developments presented in this paper include; (i) the notion of minimally representing the s-Pareto frontier, (ii) the quantification of concept goodness using s-Pareto frontiers, (iii) the development of an interactive design space exploration approach that can be used to visualize n-dimensional s-Pareto frontiers, and (iv) s-Pareto frontierbased approaches for considering uncertainty in concept selection. Simple structural examples are presented that illustrate representative applications of the proposed method.