Title: Vehicle configuration design with a packing genetic algorithm

Authors: Yi Miao, Georges M. Fadel, Vladimir B. Gantovnik

Addresses: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Clemson University, Clemson, SC, 29634-0921, USA. ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, Clemson University, Clemson, SC, 29634-0921, USA. ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, Clemson University, Clemson, SC, 29634-0921, USA

Abstract: 3D packing problems occur in many applications. Exhaustive search methods cannot identify an optimum packing in reasonable time. To improve the search efficiency of such problems, a packing Genetic Algorithm (GA) with a new encoding method and packing GA operators is proposed. The method is applied to a vehicle configuration design problem, in which the goal is to maximise the vehicle survivability, maintainability and minimise vehicle rollover tendency by finding optimal positions of vehicle components. The packing GA is integrated with a Multi-Objective Genetic Algorithm (MOGA) to search for a non-dominated front, which offers trade-off solutions to the designer.

Keywords: configuration design; 3D packing; vehicle rollover; FMTV; GAs; genetic algorithms; vehicle design; vehicle configuration.

DOI: 10.1504/IJHVS.2008.022252

International Journal of Heavy Vehicle Systems, 2008 Vol.15 No.2/3/4, pp.433 - 448

Published online: 24 Dec 2008 *

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