Analytical Target Cascading Based on Physical Programming

Analytical Target Cascading (ATC) is a product development tool that computes component design specifications so that the final system design is consistent and meets design targets. It is a promising methodology for decomposition of complex system design and optimization. However, ATC has some shortcomings inherently. In this paper, after analyzing the theory and model of ATC, a more promising method entitled Analytical Target Cascading Based on Physical Programming (ATC-PP) is proposed. This new approach is intended to substantially place the design process into a more flexible and practical framework by adding the advantages of Physical Programming (PP) into ATC. And the preference function which is proposed in PP is used to definite the deviation between response and linking variables in ATC in the new method. It can completely eliminate the need for assigning weight coefficient, which is the object of the typical computational bottleneck in large design optimization problems. And it could also give the designers´ preferences in practical design. Finally, the validity of ATC-PP is approved by studying an anchor design problem.