A MATLAB GUI Toolbox for Surrogate-Based Design and Optimization

The surrogate model technique, a fast-solving and data-based technology, has great significances in design and optimization of complex engineering systems and has been used to approximate problems without explicit functions. In this paper, a surrogate-based design and optimization (SBDO) Graphical User Interface (GUI) named SBDO Toolbox is proposed, which combines the powerful mathematical analysis capability of MATLAB with the superb interfacial design function of GUIDE. This toolbox consists of three modules, i.e., design of experiments (DOE), construction of surrogate models and prediction/optimization. Users can address an optimization problem easily by inputting the information of independent variables, setting some options (or just keeping default values), and the results of each module can be displayed graphically. The data transmission between modules is continuous, so the integrity of design process can be guaranteed. The proposed SBDO Toolbox can be commonly applied to engineering design and optimization by simply setting parameters without any professional knowledge about surrogate model techniques. Therefore, the development of SBDO Toolbox is to simplify the steps and operations of the SBDO process in engineering systems and to promote the SBDO technology.