Simultaneous Design by Means of Evolutionary Computation

This chapter presents the "simultaneous design approach" which is an eminently complex process, as different stages of the design process are coupled (integrated), stages that are often sequential for purposes of simplification. The use of optimization techniques is an effective way to enable such integration. This chapter explains how an optimization problem is raised. These problems are often multi-criteria and nearly always under constraints. Among the various optimization methods, evolutionary algorithms are well suited to solving highly heterogeneous problems with mixed variables (continuous and discrete)