A hybrid artificial intelligence system for optical lens design

The current approach to optical lens design still relies very much on the l ens designers: experience and knowledge. In the initial lens design, it is normally performed by lens designers and then is optimised by using some op timisation techniques. This research aims to design and develop a computer- aided optical lens design system for automating the entire design process. In this paper, various approaches to optical lens design are briefly review ed first. It is then followed by the descriptions of a hybrid artificial in telligence (AI) approach, based on the case based reasoning and genetic alg orithm, to optical lens design. A prototype optical lens design system base d on the hybrid approach was proposed and developed. The system not only co uld generate an initial and optimal optical lens design automatically but a lso demonstrate that the design could be done in lean knowledge paradigm.