OPTIONS Design Exploration System

OPTIONS Design Exploration System

What is OPTIONS ?

OPTIONS is a design exploration and optimization package that may be used to study and compare a large range of optimization methods when applied to design problems. Such processes are set out in our book on design. This system is now marketed world-wide by DeZineForce. The original software is described in the user manual which is available at http://www.soton.ac.uk/~ajk/options.ps.

Search Methods

The package contains, or has interfaces to, the following search methods:

NAg Methods (E04UCF and E04UAF)
Bit Climbing (BC)
Dynamic Hill Climbing (DHC)
Population Based Incremental Learning (PBIL)
Design of Experiment methods (DOE)
Numerical Recipes Methods (Num_Rcp)
Method of Successive Linear Approximation (APPROX)
Random Exploration with Shrinkage (RANDOM)
Adaptive Random Search (ADRANS)
Davidon, Fletcher, Powell Strategy (DAVID)
Fletcher's 1972 Method (FLETCH)
Jacobson and Oksman Method (JO)
Powell's Direct Search (PDS - Siddall's implementation)
Hooke and Jeeves Direct Search (SEEK - Siddall's implementation)
Simplex Method (SIMPLX - Siddall's implementation)
Rosenbrock's Rotating Co-ordinate Search (ROSE)
Complex Strategy of M.J. Box (COMP)
Two-membered Evolution Strategy (EVOL)
Multi-membered Evolution Strategy (KORR)
Repeated Fibonacci Search (FIBO)
Repeated Golden Section Search (GOLD)
Repeated Lagrangian Interpolation (LAGR)
Hooke and Jeeves Direct Search (HOJE - Schwefel's implementation)
Davies, Swann and Campey Search Method with Gram-Schmidt Orthogonalization (DSCP)
Davies, Swann and Campey Search Method with Palmer Orthogonalization (DSCP)
Powell's Direct Search (POWE - Schwefel's implementation)
Davidon, Fletcher, Powell Strategy (DFPS)
Simplex Method (SIMP - Schwefel's implementation)
Genetic Algorithm (GA)
Simulated Annealing (SA)
Evolutionary Programming (EP)
Evolution Strategy (ES)

The package can also be used to construct a range of response surface models including:

Sheperd weighting
linear, quadratic and cubic polynomial regression
linear, thin plate and cubic spline radial basis functions
stochastic process (kriging) models with and without regression

It can also be used to construct Pareto fronts for multi-objective searches.

Application Areas and Examples

We have applied/are applying OPTIONS to:

Structural Dynamics (mainly aircraft/satellite structures)
A summary paper may be found at http://www.soton.ac.uk/~ajk/plym1.ps.
A poster illustrating the design of an optimized truss structure may be found at http://www.soton.ac.uk/~ajk/truss/welcome.html.
A digitized photograph of an optimized structure on test may be found at http://www.soton.ac.uk/~ajk/lab.gif.
A paper describing satellite boom design may be found at http://www.soton.ac.uk/~ajk/plym2.ps.
Aircraft Wing Design
A poster illustrating the design of optimized aircraft wings may be found at http://www.soton.ac.uk/~gmr2/wing.html.
Ship Design
An image of an optimized hull form may be found at http://www.soton.ac.uk/~ajk/fat.gif.
A poster illustrating the design of optimized hullforms may be found at http://www.soton.ac.uk/~ajk/ship/welcome.html.
Gas turbine design
Towed Array Sonar Data Processing
A paper describing sonar data processing may be found at http://www.soton.ac.uk/~ajk/sonar.ps.
Neural Network Design
A paper describing neural network topology design may be found at http://www.soton.ac.uk/~ajk/gann1.ps.
Various Test Problems
A description of the `bump' problem may be found at http://www.soton.ac.uk/~ajk/bump.html

Full references for papers describing this work and a number of related subjects may be found on the home page of Prof. A.J. Keane (http://www.soton.ac.uk/~ajk/welcome.html ).

This article may be found at http://www.soton.ac.uk/~ajk/options.html

Correspondence to Andy.Keane@soton.ac.uk, or Prof. A.J. Keane, School of Engineering Sciences, University of Southampton, Highfield, Southampton, SO17 1BJ, U.K.
Tel +44-2380-592944, FAX +44-2380-593230.