Session: AVT-03-01 Advances in Methods for Ground Vehicle Systems Design

Paper Number: 89930

89930 - Comparison of Multi-Objective Optimisation Methods for the Design of Electric Motors 

Multi-objective optimisation algorithms are currently of great interest in engineering. They allow to solve complex problems in which conflicts between objective functions and constraints must be considered. The paper deals with a comparison between different MOP algorithms, namely Adaptive Pareto Algorithm (APA), Genetic Algorithm (GA) and Parameter Space Investigation (PSI). The comparison has been completed by solving a test problem (ZDT1) widely considered in the literature and a real engineering problem concerning the optimisation of traction electric motors. The practical problem is addressed with the help of a specific custom-made tool for the optimisation of electric motors, where Motor-CAD™ is used as multi-physics simulation software. Several metrics have been defined to objectively characterize the Pareto-optimal solutions obtained with the different algorithms. In particular for evaluating multi-objective optimisation performance, the weakly Pareto compliant formulation of the Inverted Generation Distance (IGD)  is considered.

The obtained results show a comparable Pareto optimal front between the algorithms, better characteristics related to the number of evaluations and IGD+ are assigned to the Genetic Algorithm. On the contrary, APA shows a more uniform distribution of optimal solutions belonging to the Pareto front. The PSI algorithm turns out to be the most robust algorithm among those considered, having a reduced number of initial parameters to set.

Presenting Author: Massimiliano Gobbi Politecnico di Milano

Presenting Author Biography: Massimiliano Gobbi is full professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Politecnico di Milano. He was awarded a master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering in 1994 (100/100 cum laude) from Politecnico di Milano and Ph.D. in Applied Mechanics in 1998. <br/>He was a full time visiting scholar at the Department of Mechanical Engineering of the University of California, Vehicle Dynamics Laboratory, Berkeley in 1998. In 2002, he was appointed as associate professor at Politecnico di Milano in the Department of Mechanical Engineering. <br/>He is co-founder of the Spin-off-company SmartMechanical.<br/>More than 200 technical papers have been published in well-known, international, peer reviewed journals or presented at reputed international conferences.<br/>He is author (or co-author) of seven international patents and two books, ‘Optimal Design of Complex Mechanical <br/>Systems with Applications to Vehicle Engineering’, published by Springer Verlag and ‘Moments of Inertia and products of Inertia of a Rigid Body - Design Principles of Measurement Systems’, Society of Allied Weight Engineers (2018). He has co-authored with prof. P.Y. Papalambros a chapter of the “Road and Off-Road Vehicle System Dynamics Handbook” (title: Optimization of Ground Vehicle Systems) published in 2013 by CRC press. <br/>Areas of interest: road vehicles engineering, optimization of complex systems, advanced design, experimental mechanics, mechatronics.<br/>Prof. Gobbi had been chair of the Vehicle Design Committee (VDC) of the ASME from 2015 to 2017.

Authors:

Dario Barri Politecnico di Milano
Federico Soresini Politecnico di Milano
Massimiliano Gobbi Politecnico di Milano
Giampiero Mastinu Politecnico di Milano