Robust System Design

Projects

Term Project Description

Due On: Last Lecture

Objectives

• Provide an opportunity to practice the skills acquired in 16.881 in a real world context.
• Deepen your understanding of advanced topics in robust design.
• Create value for your company.

Assignment

Note: Steps 1-5 are related to Homework #1.

1. Form a team comprised of from one to five 16.881 students. The expected accomplishments of the team scale linearly with the number of students. I suggest you build teams with members of your own company if possible.
2. Select a system for investigation. For maximum impact, select a system that your company is responsible for designing, operating, or managing. You should have some degree of control over the system so that you can perform experiments when you return to work later this summer. Senior management support for the investigation of the system is highly desirable as it will facilitate access for data collection.
3. Carefully define the function of the system. This function should have a quantitative definition insofar as possible.
4.  Describe an undesirable variation in this function. By “variation,” I mean a change in the function of the system upon repeated trials under ostensibly equal conditions. The variation can be over time, from unit to unit, or within a unit.
5. Investigate and quantify the economic consequences of the variation in this function.
6. Define an appropriate objective function to be optimized.
7. Improve the objective function through system design, parameter design, and tolerance design.
8. Experimentally confirm and quantify the improvement in engineering and economic terms.

Alternative Assignment

1. Form a team comprised of from one to five 16.881 students. The expected accomplishments of the team scalelinearly with the number of students.

2. Select an advanced topic related to Robust Design for investigation. Some possible topics include:

   • Multi-attribute optimization via experimental techniques.

   • Relationship of Robust Design to other disciplines like Axiomatic Design or Six Sigma Producibility Analysis.

   • Reliability engineering using Robust Design.

3. Study the existing literature on the topic

4. Make an original contribution by:

   • Extending the analytical or methodological approaches you found in the literature.
   • Comparing two or more analytical approaches.
   • Applying an advanced topic to a system (experimentally or via simulation).

Deliverables

• A complete but concise written report of your results (no more than twenty pages per team member).
• A brief oral report of your results (no more than five minutes per team member).

Grading

The term project will determine 40% of your grade in the course. The written report will determine the majority of the overall term project grade (75%) although the oral report is also significant (25%). The grades on the written and oral reports will be based on the following factors:

• (25%) Significance or impact of the results.
• (50%) Quality of the experimental plan and data analysis.
• (25%) Clarity of technical exposition.