The Construction And Application Of A Surrogate-based Design And Optimization Toolbox With MATLAB GUI

Computer simulation calculation is a commonly used method in complex engineering optimization design problems.Although it has stronger reliability and less experimental error than conventional physical experiments,there still have some deficiencies such as high cost,long time,large computing volume,etc.Surrogate model technique is a data-based mathematical approximation method,which could simulate the relationship between variables and response functions in systems design and optimization.Since it is regarded as an alternative to computer simulation model,surrogate model does not keep the advantages of conventional methods,but also has less design time and cheaper working cost,and provides a better basis for systems' optimization and analysis hereafter.Nowadays there are several generally used surrogate model software,but most of them have high demand of users' professional knowledge and operation skills.Here the paper implement a user-friendly surrogate-based design and optimization graphical user interface(SBDO)toolbox with MATLAB,this tool not only integrates the basis surrogate model technique but also includes the three main steps of engineering design and optimization--design of experiment,the construction of surrogate model and prediction/optimization,which makes the surrogate-based engineering design and optimization methods applying easier.The tool was used to optimize the rotor of miniature unmanned aerial vehicle.The main research works of this paper are summarized as below.(1)Studying about the current research of design of experiment,surrogate model technologies and optimization algorithms.Then design the functional interface of SBDO,which is divided into three parts as design of experiment module,construction of surrogate model module and prediction/optimization module.The design of experiment module contains latin hypercube design,full-factorial design,Box-Behnken design,central composite design and orthogonal design methods.The construction of surrogate model module includes Polynomial Response Surface,Radial Basis Function,Kriging,Support Vector Regression and Extended Adaptive Hybrid Function surrogate models.For prediction/optimization module,Genetic Algorithm,,multi-objective genetic algorithm,multi-mutation adaptive genetic algorithm,Particle Swarm Optimization,Simulated Annealing and some minimum optimum algorithms are available.(2)Comparing with the functions,user interface,theoretical frameworks and data logical structure of surrogate model-supported software,then laying out widgets on GUIDE and finishing SBDO's construction and development by programming operation options,data transmission,results display,error feedback.The color,widgets kinds,data import and user prompt options of this interface would be adjusted and amended during engineering practice.(3)25 test functions were used to test the simplicity and operability of SBDO,and a engineering design and optimization case was done for SBDO's practicability.After the assessment of interface's operation experience and optimization results,the numerical example shows the SBDO's convenience,while the engineering case verifying its' engineering practicability.This advantages are good for surrogate model technology's popularity,and may partly promote the development of mechanical design and optimization to be more concise and efficient.