ANALYSIS AND OPTIMIZATION OF COMPLEX MULTIBODY SYSTEMS USING ADVANCEDSENSITIVITY ANALYSIS-METHODS

The multibody system approach is widely used for analyzing the dynamic behavior of systems, and several programs are available for this task . But there is still a lack of tools for synthesizing nonlinear dynami c systems systematically. Synthesis requires an optimal choice of the system parameters with respect to a given performance measure. The pro blem formulation for complex systems, e.g. in vehicle dynamics or robo tics, often leads to a large set of equations and therefore the optimi zation has to be efficient. A serious problem is, that fast converging optimization algorithms like the SQP methods always require the calcu lation of sensitivity functions. Modern approaches like the adjoint va riable method or automatic differentiation offer the design engineer v aluable tools to calculate these gradients in a reliable and efficient way. In the paper components of the program environment NEWOPT/AIMS w ill be presented, which supports the engineer in modeling, simulation, visualization and optimization with a main emphasis on the sensitivit y analysis.