Integration of artificial intelligence and numerical optimization techniques for the design of complex aerospace systems

A new software system called Engineous combines artificial intelligence and numerical methods for the design and optimization of complex aerospace systems. Engineous combines the advanced computational techniques of genetic algorithms, expert systems, and object-oriented programming with the conventional methods of numerical optimization and simulated annealing to create a design optimization environment that can be applied to computational models in various disciplines. Engineous has produced designs with higher predicted performance gains that current manual design processes - on average a 10-to-1 reduction of turnaround time - and has yielded new insights into product design. It has been applied to the aerodynamic preliminary design of an aircraft engine turbine, concurrent aerodynamic and mechanical preliminary design of an aircraft engine turbine blade and disk, a space superconductor generator, a satellite power converter, and a nuclear-powered satellite reactor and shield. 23 refs