Investigating the Interaction between Reconfigurability and System Mass Using Multidisciplinary Design Optimization

Reconfigurable systems achieve increased performance by changing their configurations after deployment. However, in achieving this increased adaptability a designer is required to add hardware and components to the system, thereby increasing the system mass. Previous work in determining which design variables should be made adaptable has relied on concept-specific analysis. A need exists for a concept-independent decision-support tool to investigate the interactions between system mass, reconfigurability, and system performance. This paper introduces an approach to quantify the amount of additional mass that can be added to a system such that system’s performance is only beneficial. To illustrate this approach, a case study involving the design and optimization of a reconfigurable race car is introduced.

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