Development and application of a value driven design assessment framework to an unmanned air system design

The work presented concerns the development of a value driven engineering design assessment framework and its application to the conceptual design of an Unmanned Air System (UAS) to be utilised in a defence application. In the field of Multi-Disciplinary Design Optimization, most recent systematic search has been devoted to fixed topology parametric geometries, pertaining to a single concept, with very little stress put on the optimization of variable topologies describing alternative design concepts. Instead of pertaining to a single aircraft concept, a broad range of combinations of UAS configurations and geometries is generated by systematically searching alternative concepts and design configurations through a novel parameterization of the aircraft geometric topologies. Moreover, value, related to the designed system's capabilities or performance and lifecycle cost, is used to compare different alternatives in the decision making of engineering design through the appropriate value model. Following a value-focused approach, a novel multi-attribute value model is introduced for objectively capturing the user's preferences and expectations. Furthermore, a more sophisticated multi-attribute utility model, based on standard Multi-attribute Utility Theory, is employed in the evaluation. This research demonstrates the implementation of the value driven design philosophy in this framework, identifying value enhancing designs, with value not converted to monetary worth but as perceived by the user. The ultimate objective of this framework is to convert engineering design to a decision making analysis with multiple conflicting objectives considered.