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A Novel Approach to Planar Mechanism Synthesis Using HEEDS
Application Brief
Two mechanism types considered in the current study. |
The problem of mechanism synthesis (or design) is deceptively
complex and has been a subject of much attention since soon after the discovery
of the wheel. This application brief describes a novel approach to automated mechanism synthesis in which "convertible agents" are used to find the most appropriate mechanism type for a given problem, while simultaneously finding an
optimum set of dimensions for that mechanism to realize a specified behavior.
This convertible agent technique has been developed in
response to the unique design challenges encountered when synthesizing a
mechanism for both type and dimensionality. The synthesis technique selects
the best-suited mechanism type from a set of different planar
single-degree-of-freedom mechanism types, and optimizes its dimensions to meet
the design objective at hand. The method is readily scalable to account for any
number of different mechanism types and complexities.
The convertible agent approach is also well suited
for design applications outside of mechanism synthesis, in which there are a
small number of distinct topological design possibilities, each with parametric
variables to be optimized.
Read the entire application brief
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Using Constraints to Improve Pareto Front Resolution
HEEDS Technical Tip
Each point on a Pareto front plot represents an optimal design, in the respect that there is no other point in the design space with better values for both of the objectives. The goal of a multi-objective optimization study is to use these design points to identify the region of the Pareto front that represents a good balance between the values of the two objectives.
To capture the trade-offs between objectives, it is important to have good resolution in the region of interest on the Pareto front curve. In HEEDS, the resolution of the Pareto front is determined by the archive size (the number of points on the plot, per cycle), which you specify. The larger the archive size, the higher the resolution. However, a larger archive size also increases the total number of design evaluations required to generate the optimal Pareto front.
In this tip, we will demonstrate how to effectively improve the resolution of the Pareto front without increasing the archive size.
Read the entire tip |
Red Cedar's Co-founder To Direct New NSF-Funded Research Center
Announcement
Dr. Erik Goodman
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Red Cedar Technology's co-founder and CTO, Dr. Erik Goodman, will serve
as the Director of the newly funded BEACON center at Michigan State University.
The center was recently awarded one of five $25 million National Science
Foundation (NSF) grants.
The center's acronym, BEACON, stands for Bio/computation Evolution
in Action CONsortium. The center will foster collaboration among
evolutionary biologists, engineers, and computer scientists who are using
evolutionary processes to solve real-world problems.
Ron Averill, President and CEO of Red Cedar Technology, added "We are
very proud of Erik for his contributions and leadership in the field of
evolutionary computing and optimization. We look forward to the continued
mutual benefits of Red Cedar's relationship with Erik and Michigan State
University."
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Upcoming Events
Announcement
Dr. Ron Averill, CEO
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Materials Technical Session 2010 SAE World Congress April 13, Detroit, MI
Dr. Ron Averill, Red
Cedar's President and CEO, will be giving the keynote lecture for the Materials
Technical Session at the 2010 SAE World Congress in Detroit.
The
title of Dr. Averill's lecture is Crash
Optimization of Components with Full System Coupling. The lecture is
scheduled for Tuesday, April 13 at 8:00 am.
We hope to see you there!
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HEEDS with Guides
Announcement
HEEDS Professional customers frequently ask us for more information about how to use HEEDS with their preferred design and analysis tools. In response to these requests, we are continually expanding our selection of HEEDS with guides. The following guides are currently available to our customers at no cost. HEEDS Professional with
- Abaqus
- ADVISOR
- Catia
- DEP Morpher
- Excel
- Fluent
- HyperMorph
- LS-DYNA
- Matlab
- Moldflow
- MSC Nastran
- NX
- Patran
- Solidworks
- NEi Nastran
If you'd like to request a PDF of any of these guides, please
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As always, we hope you have found this issue informative and interesting. If you have questions or feedback, please don't hesitate to contact us.
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