Patent ID: 6983233

Claim:
A computer program product on a computer-readable medium for designing a set of experiments, the program comprising instructions operable to cause a programmable processor to: receive input defining a set of experimental parameters, one or more sampling patterns defining a sampling for each parameter of the set of experimental parameters, and one or more constraints limiting the set of experiments to a particular volume or volumes of a hyperspace defined by the set of experimental parameters, at least a plurality of the set of parameters being grouped according to a parameter type such that the grouped parameters are constrained to perform a common role in the set of experiments; generate a first estimate of the practicability of a first set of experiments defined by the parameters, the sampling patterns and the constraints, the first estimate including a count of the set of experiments defined by the set of experimental parameters, the sampling patterns and the constraints, and provide the first estimate to a user; receive input modifying at least one of the set of parameters, the sampling patterns or the constraints in response to the first estimate; in response to the input modifying at least one of the set of parameters, the sampling patterns or the constraints, generate a second estimate of the practicability of a second set of experiments defined by the set of experimental parameters defined by the parameters, the sampling patterns and the constraints, including the modified parameters, sampling patterns or constraints, the second estimate including a count of the second set of experiments, and provide the second estimate to the user, and in response to input approving of the second estimate, generate an experiment design defined by the parameters, the sampling patterns and the constraints, the experiment design including data representing a final set of experiments, the data including a plurality of sets of coordinates in the hyperspace defined by the set of experimental parameters, each of the sets of coordinates defining an experiment in the final set of experiments.