Application of design of experiments to feature selection in ventilation tube applicator

Design of experiments (DOE) is a systematic, rigorous approach to engineering problem-solving that applies principles and techniques at the data collection stage so as to ensure the generation of valid, defensible and supportable engineering conclusions. It has been used in manufacturing environment for decades to investigate factors affecting a process response under the constraint of a minimal expenditure of engineering runs, time and money. The main purpose is first qualifying the important factors among a number of variables in the process and secondly achieving a desired outcome of the response by choosing the correct settings for those factors. In this technical report, we apply factorial design in DOE to select key features to be implemented in an office-based ventilation tube applicator (VTA). These features will directly affect the success rate of the automated tube insertion to cure patients having otitis media with effusion. The results of experiment are analysed using classification tree analysis. The analysis yields the optimal combination of factors to produce optimised output which is qualified for the prototyping phase.