Shape optimisation using evolutionary techniques in product design

Shape or surface optimisation in product design is a very essential and time-consuming process, especially at the conceptual design stage. In this paper, we introduce a research project aiming to develop an evolutionary design system capable of evolving product shape designs that are easy to manufacture and satisfy the given geometric constraints. One of the issues in applying evolutionary techniques to conceptual design is how to represent designs in a way in which genetic algorithms can be used to support the process of generating and optimising innovative and imaginative geometric components and parts. This paper examines two stages of using genetic algorithms in product shape design-the representation of shapes or phenotype and how to encode designs in a manner analogous to genes in nature, which can be manipulated by genetic alaorithms. The early research result and directions for future work are also presented in this paper. (c) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.