Machine design support system using interactive evolutionary techniques

The authors propose a machine design support system using evolutionary techniques. The proposed system creates "machine" which consists of multiple parts. It is composed of two phases: the fundamental-parts-generation-phase, and the machine-generation-phase where the generated parts are combined. On each phase we use an evolutionary technique, genetic programming. The system generates parts itself, uses functional parts in advance, and expresses a shape\´s structure by tree structure. Therefore, it is possible to generate various and functional designs. We have implemented the system on PC, and carried out experiments to confirm that various novel objects can be obtained