Red Cedar Technology
Encyclopedia
Red Cedar Technology is a software development and engineering services company. Red Cedar Technology was founded by Michigan State University
professors Ron Averill and Erik Goodman in 1999. The headquarters is located in East Lansing, MI, near MSU's campus. Red Cedar Technology develops and distributes the HEEDS Professional suite of design optimization
software. HEEDS is based on spin-out technology from Michigan State University.
tools in order to automate and improve the search for better product and/or process designs. HEEDS can perform both single-objective and multi-objective (Pareto
) optimization. Additionally, HEEDS includes the ability to perform Design of Experiments
and Reliability analysis
. HEEDS MDO was formerly named HEEDS Professional.
HEEDS is utilized across many industries, including Aerospace
, Automotive
, Biomedical
, and Manufacturing
. Products such as Nitinol stents, crash rails in automobiles , MEMS
and fiber composite
parts have all been designed using HEEDS.
HEEDS generically interfaces with analysis codes through batch execution and different forms of scripting, but also includes direct interfaces to Abaqus
, ANSYS, LS-DYNA
, Nastran
, NX, and Microsoft Excel
.
tools, and explore different options that exist based on user-defined design variables. HEEDS includes the SHERPA algorithm, which is an intelligent, hybrid, adaptive design optimization method. SHERPA is based on over two decades of research at Michigan State University, and was spun off to Red Cedar Technology in 1999.
HEEDS also has the MO-SHERPA algorithm, which is an adapted version of the SHERPA algorithm designed for multi-objective design optimization. This gives the user the opportunity to find a set of Pareto optimal
designs, and gain information regarding the trade offs between the objectives.
The following design optimization algorithms are available in HEEDS:
. The following sampling methods are available:
agent which allows the user to perform robustness studies using Monte Carlo Sampling
or Latin hypercube sampling
and reliability studies using Monte Carlo Sampling, Latin hypercube sampling, or FORM
. Robustness studies can tell the user how sensitive the design is to stochastic variation of the input parameters. Reliability studies can tell the user how likely a design is to violate constraint limits as a result of stochastic variation of the input parameters.
Michigan State University
Michigan State University is a public research university in East Lansing, Michigan, USA. Founded in 1855, it was the pioneer land-grant institution and served as a model for future land-grant colleges in the United States under the 1862 Morrill Act.MSU pioneered the studies of packaging,...
professors Ron Averill and Erik Goodman in 1999. The headquarters is located in East Lansing, MI, near MSU's campus. Red Cedar Technology develops and distributes the HEEDS Professional suite of design optimization
Multidisciplinary design optimization
Multi-disciplinary design optimization is a field of engineering that uses optimization methods to solve design problems incorporating a number of disciplines. As defined by Prof. Carlo Poloni, MDO is "the art of finding the best compromise"...
software. HEEDS is based on spin-out technology from Michigan State University.
History
Red Cedar Technology was founded in 1999 to commercialize technology developed at Michigan State University. The company initially provided engineering consulting services including non-linear FEA and design optimization. The optimization technology was released as a software product, HEEDS, in 2004.HEEDS MDO
HEEDS (Hierarchical Evolutionary Engineering Design System) MDO is a software package that interfaces with commercial CAEComputer-aided engineering
Computer-aided engineering is the broad usage of computer software to aid in engineering tasks. It includes computer-aided design , computer-aided analysis , computer-integrated manufacturing , computer-aided manufacturing , material requirements planning , and computer-aided planning .- Overview...
tools in order to automate and improve the search for better product and/or process designs. HEEDS can perform both single-objective and multi-objective (Pareto
Pareto efficiency
Pareto efficiency, or Pareto optimality, is a concept in economics with applications in engineering and social sciences. The term is named after Vilfredo Pareto, an Italian economist who used the concept in his studies of economic efficiency and income distribution.Given an initial allocation of...
) optimization. Additionally, HEEDS includes the ability to perform Design of Experiments
Design of experiments
In general usage, design of experiments or experimental design is the design of any information-gathering exercises where variation is present, whether under the full control of the experimenter or not. However, in statistics, these terms are usually used for controlled experiments...
and Reliability analysis
Reliability engineering
Reliability engineering is an engineering field, that deals with the study, evaluation, and life-cycle management of reliability: the ability of a system or component to perform its required functions under stated conditions for a specified period of time. It is often measured as a probability of...
. HEEDS MDO was formerly named HEEDS Professional.
HEEDS is utilized across many industries, including Aerospace
Aerospace
Aerospace comprises the atmosphere of Earth and surrounding space. Typically the term is used to refer to the industry that researches, designs, manufactures, operates, and maintains vehicles moving through air and space...
, Automotive
Automotive industry
The automotive industry designs, develops, manufactures, markets, and sells motor vehicles, and is one of the world's most important economic sectors by revenue....
, Biomedical
Biomedical technology
Biomedical technology broadly refers to the application of engineering and technology principles to the domain of living or biological systems. Usually inclusion of the term biomedical denotes a principal emphasis on problems related to human health and diseases, whereas terms like "biotechnology"...
, and Manufacturing
Manufacturing
Manufacturing is the use of machines, tools and labor to produce goods for use or sale. The term may refer to a range of human activity, from handicraft to high tech, but is most commonly applied to industrial production, in which raw materials are transformed into finished goods on a large scale...
. Products such as Nitinol stents, crash rails in automobiles , MEMS
Microelectromechanical systems
Microelectromechanical systems is the technology of very small mechanical devices driven by electricity; it merges at the nano-scale into nanoelectromechanical systems and nanotechnology...
and fiber composite
Composite material
Composite materials, often shortened to composites or called composition materials, are engineered or naturally occurring materials made from two or more constituent materials with significantly different physical or chemical properties which remain separate and distinct at the macroscopic or...
parts have all been designed using HEEDS.
HEEDS generically interfaces with analysis codes through batch execution and different forms of scripting, but also includes direct interfaces to Abaqus
Abaqus
Abaqus FEA is a suite of software applications for finite element analysis and computer-aided engineering, originally released in 1978...
, ANSYS, LS-DYNA
LS-DYNA
LS-DYNA is an advanced general-purpose multiphysics simulation software package developed by the Livermore Software Technology Corporation...
, Nastran
Nastran
NASTRAN is a finite element analysis program that was originally developed for NASA in the late 1960s under United States government funding for the Aerospace industry. The MacNeal-Schwendler Corporation was one of the principal and original developers of the public domain NASTRAN code...
, NX, and Microsoft Excel
Microsoft Excel
Microsoft Excel is a proprietary commercial spreadsheet application written and distributed by Microsoft for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X. It features calculation, graphing tools, pivot tables, and a macro programming language called Visual Basic for Applications...
.
Design Optimization
When an engineer is required to design a component or system to conflicting performance criteria, design optimization is often used. HEEDS allows the user to analyze a design based on their normal CAEComputer-aided engineering
Computer-aided engineering is the broad usage of computer software to aid in engineering tasks. It includes computer-aided design , computer-aided analysis , computer-integrated manufacturing , computer-aided manufacturing , material requirements planning , and computer-aided planning .- Overview...
tools, and explore different options that exist based on user-defined design variables. HEEDS includes the SHERPA algorithm, which is an intelligent, hybrid, adaptive design optimization method. SHERPA is based on over two decades of research at Michigan State University, and was spun off to Red Cedar Technology in 1999.
HEEDS also has the MO-SHERPA algorithm, which is an adapted version of the SHERPA algorithm designed for multi-objective design optimization. This gives the user the opportunity to find a set of Pareto optimal
Pareto efficiency
Pareto efficiency, or Pareto optimality, is a concept in economics with applications in engineering and social sciences. The term is named after Vilfredo Pareto, an Italian economist who used the concept in his studies of economic efficiency and income distribution.Given an initial allocation of...
designs, and gain information regarding the trade offs between the objectives.
The following design optimization algorithms are available in HEEDS:
- SHERPA
- Multi-objective SHERPA (MO-SHERPA)
- Genetic algorithmGenetic algorithmA genetic algorithm is a search heuristic that mimics the process of natural evolution. This heuristic is routinely used to generate useful solutions to optimization and search problems...
- Sequential quadratic programmingSequential quadratic programmingSequential quadratic programming is an iterative method for nonlinear optimization. SQP methods are used on problems for which the objective function and the constraints are twice continuously differentiable....
- Simulated annealingSimulated annealingSimulated annealing is a generic probabilistic metaheuristic for the global optimization problem of locating a good approximation to the global optimum of a given function in a large search space. It is often used when the search space is discrete...
- Response surface methodologyResponse surface methodologyIn statistics, response surface methodology explores the relationships between several explanatory variables and one or more response variables. The method was introduced by G. E. P. Box and K. B. Wilson in 1951. The main idea of RSM is to use a sequence of designed experiments to obtain an...
- Multi-start local search
- Particle swarm optimizationParticle swarm optimizationIn computer science, particle swarm optimization is a computational method that optimizes a problem by iteratively trying to improve a candidate solution with regard to a given measure of quality...
- Nelder-Mead Simplex
Design of Experiments (DOE)
HEEDS allows the user to predict sensitivities using Design of ExperimentsDesign of experiments
In general usage, design of experiments or experimental design is the design of any information-gathering exercises where variation is present, whether under the full control of the experimenter or not. However, in statistics, these terms are usually used for controlled experiments...
. The following sampling methods are available:
- Full factorial designs (2-level and 3-level)
- Fractional factorial designs (2-level and 3-level)
- Taguchi orthogonal arrays
- Plackett-Burman designs
- Latin hypercube designsLatin hypercube samplingLatin hypercube sampling is a statistical method for generating a distribution of plausible collections of parameter values from a multidimensional distribution. The sampling method is often applied in uncertainty analysis....
- Central composite designs
- D-optimal designs
- Taguchi robust design arrays
- User-defined arrays
- User-defined response data
Robustness and Reliability
HEEDS has a Robustness and ReliabilityReliability engineering
Reliability engineering is an engineering field, that deals with the study, evaluation, and life-cycle management of reliability: the ability of a system or component to perform its required functions under stated conditions for a specified period of time. It is often measured as a probability of...
agent which allows the user to perform robustness studies using Monte Carlo Sampling
Monte Carlo method
Monte Carlo methods are a class of computational algorithms that rely on repeated random sampling to compute their results. Monte Carlo methods are often used in computer simulations of physical and mathematical systems...
or Latin hypercube sampling
Latin hypercube sampling
Latin hypercube sampling is a statistical method for generating a distribution of plausible collections of parameter values from a multidimensional distribution. The sampling method is often applied in uncertainty analysis....
and reliability studies using Monte Carlo Sampling, Latin hypercube sampling, or FORM
First-order reliability method
The first-order reliability method, , is a semi-probabilistic reliability analysis method devised to evaluate the reliability of a system.-References:*Verderaime, V. , NASA Techical Paper 3501...
. Robustness studies can tell the user how sensitive the design is to stochastic variation of the input parameters. Reliability studies can tell the user how likely a design is to violate constraint limits as a result of stochastic variation of the input parameters.