A study on interactive multicriteria optimization method using qualitative reasoning.
Masao Arakawa, Hiroshi Yamakawa · TRANSACTIONS OF THE JAPAN SOCIETY OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERS Series C · 1991
In an ordinary optimum design process, designers must express a design problem as a mathematical model with a single objective problem. However, there are an unusually high number of objectives in a structural design, so it will be hard work for designers to choose just one of them. In such cases, it will be natural and reasonable to formulate a multi-objective optimization problem. Recently, many studies have been done on the interactive multicriteria optimization problems. In conventional methods, designers have been required to make important and difficult decisions concerning the "trade-off ratio", "marginal rates of substitution", "surrogate worth trade-off" and so on. In this study, we modified qualitative reasoning, which has been mainly studied in the field of artificial intelligence, and applied it to an interactive multicriteria optimization process. It appears from a numerical example of the optimum design of a parabolic antenna that the proposed method may be applicable and effective for optimizations of complex systems by qualitative understanding and can support the decision making.