Design centering using momentum based centre of gravity

Design centering, part of the parameter design stage in Taguchi's approach to robust design, is achieved through either approximating the geometric constraints, modelling the yield function or through the use of heuristics methods. Ellipsoidal and simplicial based techniques are usually used in the modelling of design constraints. Heuristics methods such as the center of gravity method attempt to estimate the optimal yield directly. Most of the design centering techniques suffer from slow convergence rate and require large number of samples or simulations. The center of gravity algorithm, despite exhibiting oscillatory behaviour when searching for the high yield region, is found to be effective in reaching the high yield region. In this paper, a new heuristic approach called Momentum based Center of Gravity (CoG) methodology is presented. Application of this method on a cantilever beam, a high pass filter and low pass filter circuits revealed better performance than that of the generic CoG methodology. It is found that the new algorithm reached the high yield region faster and exhibited less oscillatory movement.