A CONCEPTUAL-FRAMEWORK FOR COMBINING ARTIFICIAL-INTELLIGENCE AND OPTIMIZATION IN ENGINEERING DESIGN

Research in artificial intelligence and optimization (OR) has had sign ificant impact on the formulation and solution of computational method s in engineering design. This paper presents a conceptual framework fo r understanding a mole powerful technology that is evolving from a com bination of these approaches. The paper first proposes generalized rep resentations of engineering design models that involve quantitative an d qualitative aspects. Second, it presents a general classification of AI and OR models in terms of model attributes, in order to establish mappings with generic solution techniques. Third, the requirements of solution methods are discussed, as well as several schemes for the int egration of AI and optimization to identify future research directions . Several specific approaches are included to illustrate various ways in which AI and optimization can be combined for tackling computationa l design models.