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Design optimization of a mechatronic device in the presence of quantitative and qualitative design criteria and multiple objectives

University of British Columbia

Mechatronic devices and multi-domain (multi-physics) systems are widely used in modern industry and other engineering applications. Mechatronic engineering focuses on developing a design solution that integrates multiple domains, particularly electrical and mechanical systems. For a successful product, these systems require to be accurate, fast, reliable, flexible, minimalist, easy to use and cost effective. Such design demands are diverse, can interact with each other, and might be characterized quantitatively, qualitatively, or both. This might require different scales, units, and physical representations between multiple criteria or objectives. Interacting criteria or objectives might be conflicting, e.g., improving one requirement might deteriorate another requirement. This requires reaching a compromise between objectives, a trade-off decision. The present dissertation addresses the multi-objective design optimization problem that involves quantitative and qualitative design criteria and objectives, in a mechatronic system. The methods developed in this thesis are applied to the design of a wearable sleep monitoring system. For the benefit of that application, a design optimization framework is proposed for sensor placement on a human body to improve the wearablity and reliability of a monitoring system that contains the sensors. The developed framework assists the designer in selecting the type and location of the sensors, and the pertinent wiring. The framework uses fuzzy sets and numbers to reduce the subjectivity that arises with qualitative criteria. To describe the qualitative objective comfort, fuzzy measures and the Choquet integral are used, particularly for combining multiple criteria and handling model interactions. Furthermore, fuzzy measures with the Choquet integral and the decision-making method VIKOR are introduced to make a relatively less subjective trade-off decision between conflicting objectives. Finally, a comparison is made between an improved VIKOR method and a fuzzy measure and Choquet integral approach, related to their optimization trade-off decisions. This study leads to a synthesis of all presented results and concludes that the proposed methods provide comparable results and are effective strategies for trade-off decisions. In this manner, the present investigation significantly contributes to the development of a more effective approach for solving a multi-objective design problem with quantitative and qualitative design criteria.

Text

2019-12-12

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/72700

Mechanical Engineering

University of British Columbia

UBCV

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/