The ARL trade space visualizer: An engineering decision-making tool

To support trade space exploration early in the conceptual design stage, researchers at the Applied Research Laboratory (ARL) at Penn State University have been developing the ARL Trade Space Visualizer (ATSV). The ATSV uses multi-dimensional visualization techniques to display complex trade spaces, which are populated using conceptual models. Recent efforts have focused on extending the ATSV capabilities. One such effort has been to visualize design uncertainty, which can be displayed using the multi-dimensional plotting capabilities in the ATSV. Since the ATSV is a stand-alone application, efforts have focused on linking the conceptual model design rules to interesting features within trade spaces, resulting in the development of the feature finder tool. Additionally, the ATSV can calculate and display derivative information about a selected point in the trade space. All of these capabilities are demonstrated using data generated from rail gun and power subsystems in a fighting vehicle conceptual model.