Patent ID: 6931366

Claim:
A method of interactively analyzing and optimizing a computer generated model of a design of a vehicle, said method comprising the steps of: preparing an analytical reliability and robustness parameter diagram using a computer system, wherein said reliability and robustness parameter diagram identifies a parameter within the computer generated model of the vehicle design to be analyzed and a set of design points of corresponding characteristics; selecting a portion of a design space from the computer generated model of the vehicle design to approximate an associated performance surface and randomly selecting sample points within the selected portion of the design space; performing a computer-based engineering simulation using the randomly selected sample points as an input value, to determine a corresponding output value; determining a residual output value using the randomly selected sample points, wherein the residual output value is determined by approximating a performance surface response for the randomly selected sample points; optimizing the approximated performance surface response within a predetermined degree of accuracy; determining a performance of the design using the optimized response that approximates the performance surface; evaluating the performance of the design by the user to determine if the design meets a predetermined criteria; adopting the design as a final design if the performance meets the predetermined criteria, otherwise continuing to optimize the overall design to be robust using a relationship between a value of the performance and a probability of occurrence, until the design meets the predetermined criteria; and using the design for the vehicle.