Abstract
Coupled Engineered Systems can be characterized by the inherent interactions among design decisions. These interactions define the influence that one design decision exerts over another and require appropriate method to model such interactions. Robust design enables designers to design a product or process that is relatively insensitive to uncertainties. Hence, robust design of coupled engineered systems enables designers to, (i) design engineered systems while accounting for interaction among design decisions and (ii) identifying design decisions that are relatively insensitive to uncertainties.
In this paper, an appropriate method to model interactions and identify robust solution is presented. The interacting decisions are categorized into concurrent and hierarchical decisions and are respectively modeled with horizontal and vertical coupling. Based on the strength of interaction between these decisions, two types of interactions are defined, weak and strong interactions. To enable robust decisions in a coupled engineered systems, robustness metrics are defined and included as goals/constraints. The metrics considered in this work are to explore the solution space and manage uncertainty by considering the design of robust systems. The method has been tested on three design examples, that are, (i) design of a fender, (ii) design of a gearbox and (iii) design of a composite structure.
Informing robust decisions from workplace-based assessment
