An industry validated framework for multi-objective harness routing considering assembly ergonomics

This paper explores the development of a computer framework for electric harness routing considering design requirements and ergonomic assembly aspects simultaneously. It expands the current knowledge in this field by introducing methods for multidisciplinary analysis, allowing for the weighting of different criteria to create various solutions evaluated against multiple factors such as harness length, number of clipping points and ergonomic factors etc., utilizing Bayesian optimization. Two case studies are presented to demonstrate and evaluate the framework. The first case focuses on the evaluation of the multi-objective optimization, showing that the framework successfully generates several alternative design solutions and a wide variation of Pareto optimal solutions. In the second case the framework is brought out to the industry where four engineers use the framework for a real case. The work process and design results are compared with a test group which solves the same design problem but uses standard design tools. The evaluation highlights the framework’s potential to enhance the harness design process, with an estimated potential to reduce engineering time by 60%. The full code is available at https://github.com/wiberganton/autopack2.1 .