The hybrid meta-heuristics by reflecting recognition of dependence relation among design variables for the optimization of spot weld positions

The digital engineering is considered as a powerful technology for improving the competitive power of products. Especially the optimal design is an important technology for it. The products, which have the competitive power, usually have core technologies in the design and manufacturing fields. The spot weld technology, such as positions and number of spot welds on white-body, indicates the technological level of automotive company. This technology is typical core technology. Authors proposed a new hybrid meta-heuristic method by reflecting recognition of dependence relation among design variables automatically. The proposed method was applied to some benchmark functions to check its performance, and was confirmed that it improved an amount of computational cost and convergence up to the optimal solution. In this paper, authors apply the proposed method for an estimation of it to the optimization of spot welding positions which is an actual engineering problem. The effectiveness of the proposed method is discussed through the optimization of spot weld positions for application of engineering problems.