DanZha

ang,Gordon
nWade,Ma
axwellWoo
odLee,JieYYingWu

Table of Contents
PROJECTOVERVIEW............................................................................................................................1
OPTIMIZATIONPROCEDURE................................................................................................................2
CONSIDERATIONSFOROPTIMIZINGSHAPE.......................................................................................................2
DETERMININGTHECOMFORTPARADIGM........................................................................................................2
ComputerGeneratedDataPointsforScannedTracing.....................................................................3
GENERATINGTHECOSTPARADIGM.................................................................................................................5
COMPARISONOFTHECOMFORTDESIGNVS.THECOSTDESIGN............................................................................5
GENERATINGTHEOPTIMALDESIGN................................................................................................................7
COMPARISONOFTHEOPTIMIZEDDESIGNVS.THEPARADIGMS............................................................................7
MERITSANDLIMITATIONS.............................................................................................................................9
FURTHERMATHEMATICALMODELINGOFTHEIDEALERGONOMICANDOPTIMIZEDERGONOMICCURVES...................10
CONCLUSIONS...................................................................................................................................15
APPENDIX..........................................................................................................................................16

Project Overview
Theprojectsobjectiveistodevelopthehalfcrosssectional2Doutlineofareusablewater
bottlethatiseasytogripwhileusingminimalmaterial.Sincereusablewaterbottleshavea
longerlifetimeandareextensivelyreused,theshapeofthebottleintermsofitscomfort
levelbecomesmoreimportanttotheuser.Atthesametime,itisimportantforthe
manufacturertomaintainthelowestpossiblecostsofproductionforthebottle.

Theoriginalidealmodelforanergonomicdesign,takenbytracingtheinnershapeofa
handgrippinganimaginarybottleandthentranslatedintodatapoints,iscomparedtoafully
ellipticaldesignwhichcoversanequalareabutminimizestheoveralllengthofthecross
section.Theprojectattemptstodevelopadesignthatbalancesthetwoopposingparadigms
bymathematicallydeterminingasetofpointsthatformacrosssectionthatnotonly
accountsforergonomicsbutalsoencompassesthesameareaastheparadigmsand
minimizestherelativematerialcost(RMC)ofthebottle.
Thisreportpresentsthefinaldesign,aswellastheprocedureandconsiderationstakenin
generatingtheoptimalcrosssection.Theoverallshapeofthedesignmorecloselyresembles
theshapeofthehandsgrip,butissmoothedoutandgeometricallyabstractedtoadegreein
ordertoreducetheadditionalrelativematerialcostsincurredbydeviationsfromthe
standard,mostcostefficientellipseshape.

Optimization Procedure
Considerations for Optimizing Shape
Costandergonomicsaretheprimarycriteriafortheoptimizationprocess;however,an
appropriatebalancemustbedeterminedbeforetheoptimizationprocedurecanbegin.After
discussion,thegroupdecidedanevenweightingof5050betweencomfortandmaterialcost
wouldbethemostbeneficial.Althoughthisdrivesuptherelativematerialcostofproducing
thebottle,thegroupfeltthatthetradeoffwasacceptableduetothebenefitsthatthe
ergonomicswouldprovide.Reusablewaterbottleshaveahighusagerateandextended
lifetime,sothecomfortofthegripismoreimportantthanthecomfortinoneuseplastic
bottlesandothersimilarcontainers.Thefunctionusedtodeterminerelativematerialcost
takesthisintoaccounttoproducearelativeindex:

OptimizationofReusableBottleDesigns

whereistheweightingcoefficient,Cistherelativecost,Aistheoptimizedcurvestotal
deviationinareafromthecostefficientellipticalcurve,andListhetotallengthofthe
optimizedcurve.Thedeviationinareareflectsergonomicadjustmentsmadetothecurve
whilethelengthreflectstheamountofmaterialrequiredtocraftthecurve;therefore,hasa
valueof0.5suchthateachcomponentoftherelativecostbecomesequallyaccountedfor.
Withthisweightingdecided,itisnowpossibletodeterminetheidealhybridizationofthetwo
paradigmshapes.

Determining the Comfort Paradigm

Todeterminethestandardmostcomfortablegripdesign,atracingoftheinnercurveofa
handholdinganimaginaryobjectwascompletedandscannedintoacomputer.Thisinput
wasdigitizedandrescaledusingaprewrittenapplicationintodatapointswithdomain[1,1]
andrange[0,1]suchthattheendpointsofthetracingfallon(1,0)and(1,0)respectively.
Thestandardizeddatawasreduceddowntoasetof30pointsandorganizedintoa
spreadsheetinExcel.

ScannedShapeofHand
1
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2

0
1

0.5

0.5

ScannedShape

ComputerGeneratedDataPointsforScannedTracing

ScannedX

ScannedY

1
0.931034
0.862069
0.793103
0.724138
0.655172
0.586207
0.517241
0.448276
0.37931
0.310345
0.241379
0.172414
0.103448
0.034483
0.034483
0.103448
0.172414
0.241379
0.310345
0.37931
0.448276
0.517241
0.586207
0.655172
0.724138
0.793103
0.862069
0.931034
1

0
0.015361
0.06298
0.165899
0.356375
0.502304
0.557604
0.612903
0.663594
0.728111
0.75576
0.780338
0.801843
0.817204
0.826421
0.835637
0.860215
0.894009
0.920123
0.956989
0.975422
0.984639
0.989247
1
0.976959
0.923195
0.843318
0.642089
0.278034
0


OptimizationofReusableBottleDesigns

Placeholdertable2

Generating the Cost Paradigm

Togenerateanellipsestandardizedtothesamerangeasthatofthecomfortdesign,the
coefficientsaandbinthestandardequationofanellipsewerecalculated.
1
Thecoefficientofx2canimmediatelybeidentifiedasa=1becausethedomainoftheellipse
mustbe[1,1].Thevalueofbthereforemustbesuchthattheeclipseenclosesanequalarea
astheergonomiccurve.Thisbvaluewascalculatedtobeapproximately0.395956.

Comparison of the Comfort Design vs. the Cost Design

Nowthatthestandardizedcostefficientcurvehasbeendetermined,itispossibleto
determinetherelativematerialcostoftheergonomiccurve.

Ergonomicvs.CostEfficientDesigns
1
0.9
0.8
0.7

0.6
0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
0
1

0.5

0
CostEfficient

0.5

Ergonomic

Theergonomiccurvesdeviationfromthecostefficientdesignisrepresentedbythetotal
areaofdeviationfromthecostefficientdesign.Becausetheergonomicdesignwas
constructedusingindividualdatapoints,anintegralapproachcannotbedirectlyapplied.
Therefore,theareasundereachcurvewereestimatedacrosseachxinterval,summed,and
thensubtractedtodeterminethedeviationinarea.Thesegmentlengthofthescannedcurve
wasalsodeterminedearliersothatallnecessaryvaluesfortheevaluationofthecostfunction
arepresent.


OptimizationofReusableBottleDesigns

Placeholdertable3

Thecostfunctionproducesanoutputof1.73714forourpredeterminedcostcomfort
weightingof5050.

Generating the Optimal Design

Atthisstage,allvaluesnecessaryfortheoptimizationprocesshavebeencalculated.To
accountforour5050weightingbetweencomfortandcost,theoutputofthecostfunction
with=0.5shouldbeminimizedthisistheprimaryobjectiveoftheoptimizationprocess.
Thefixedareaofthecrosssectionhasbeenapproximatedtobe1.3045squarescaleunits
(referredtoasSU2infuture);thecomputeroptimizedcurvemustmaintainanequalarea.In
additiontothisconstraint,theendpointsoftheoptimizedcurvemustremainat(1,0)and(1,
0)asatechnicaldetail.UsingtheSolverprograminExcel,anoptimizedcurvesatisfyingthese
constraintswasdetermined.Graphingtheresultantpointsshowsadesignwithaclear
balancebetweenergonomicsandcost.

Comparison of the Optimized Design vs. the Paradigms

OptimizedBottleDesign
1

0.9
0.8
0.7
0.6
0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
0
1

0.5

0.5

Optimized

Thebaseshapeofthehandscurveisstilleasilydistinguishable,butfinervariationshave
beeneliminatedintheoptimizationprocesstoreducethecost.Roundededgeshavebecome
blunterandtheentirecurveisconvex.Usinggeneralmeasurementsofthisstudentshand,
oneScaleUnit(SU)wasdeterminedtobeapproximatelytwoinches.Theapproximate
dimensionsofthebottleatthewidestsectionsaretherefore4x3.8.Thetotalcross
sectionalareaofthebottlewouldbe2.7209SU2=5.4418squareinches.


OptimizationofReusableBottleDesigns

Placeholdertable4

ComparisonofErgonomic,CostEfficient,
andOptimizedDesigns
1
0.9
0.8
0.7
0.6
0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
0
1

0.5
CostEfficient

0
Ergonomic

0.5

Optimized

Thevisualresemblancetotheergonomicparadigmcurvesshapehasbeenpreserved;the
optimalcurveappearstobeageometricallyabstractedversionoftheoriginalscannedcurve.
Thesmallerdeviationsalongtheleftandcentersegmentsaswellasthemoreextreme
deviationinthetoprightsegmentofthescannedcurvehavebeensignificantlyreducedto
minimizethesegmentlengthandthereforetheamountofmaterialrequiredtocreatethe
bottle.

Costwise,theoptimizedbottlehasarelativematerialcostof1.54336.Thisisasignificant
reductionfromtheoriginalRMCof1.73714,andalsoverylowRMCoverallsincethecost
efficientellipticaldesignhasanRMCof1.46719.Theoptimizationprocesswasthereforevery
successfulatreducingthematerialcost,decreasingtheRMCby71%ofthemaximumpossible
costreductionfromtheergonomicparadigm.

Merits and Limitations

Theoptimizedcrosssectionmanagestomaintainthe1.36045SU2areasofthetwoparadigm
curves,whilealsocreatingarespectablereductionintherelativematerialcostcomparedto
theergonomicparadigm.However,whilethedesignhashighutilityasanergonomicgrip
bottletherearelimitationstoabottlewithacrosssectionalshapeliketheoptimizedcurve.
Whiletheergonomicgripisfunctional,itrestrictsthepositionofthehandonthebottleto
onlyoneposition.Thehandmustapproachandgrabthebottlefromthedirectionofthe
ergonomicgrip,i.e.theupperrightareaofthecurve,inorderfortheergonomicgriptoserve
itsintendedpurpose.Grabbingthebottlefromtheleftsideofthecurvewillbe
uncomfortable,asasharpwedgeshapedformationwillbepresent.Thisistheprimary
limitationofthedesign.Asecondarybutstillnotablelimitationistheeccentricityofthe

Thetwopointsofconsiderationareaestheticappealandcompatibility.Whilefunctional,the
bottlemayappearstrangelookingandthereforedissuadebuyersfrompurchasingthebottle.
Aestheticsisasignificantpartofconsumerdecisionmakingandthereforearefineddesign
withvisualappearancetakenintoaccountmayhavemorepractical/commercialsuccess
despitecompromisingtheergonomicsand/orcostefficiency.Additionally,theoddshapeof
thebottlemaydecreaseitscompatibilitywithotherrelatedobjects,suchasdrinkholdersin
seats,cars,andbags.Theirregularshapecouldmeanthatthebottlewillnotfitstably(orat
all)insomeoftheseprovidedutilities,posinganinconveniencetotheownerofthebottle.
Duetothesphericaldesignofmostholders,arefineddesigncouldbemodifiedsuchthatit
canbeexactlycircumscribedinacircleorradius1SU.Thiswouldcreateanevenshapewhich
wouldhaveahigherprobabilityofbeingcompatiblewithholders,whilealsobeingmore
stablethoughtheoriginaloptimaldesignshouldalreadyprovidealargeenoughbasefor
sufficientstability.

OptimizationofReusableBottleDesigns

10

Further Mathematical Modeling of the Ideal Ergonomic and Optimized

Ergonomic Curves
Furthermathematicalmodelingoftheparadigmergonomicandoptimizedergonomiccurves
canbedoneusingChebyshevpolynomials.Thecompletedmodelsshouldprovideafinal
polynomialequationforeachcurvewhich,whengraphedwithadomainof[1,1],generatea
verysimilarcurvetotheoriginaldatapointscurves.
TheChebyshevpolynomialapproximationsforeachcurveshouldbeofthisform:

whereTi+1isdefinedrecursivelyforvaluesofIby:
2

ThereforeTifor0i9isasfollows:

T0 x 1
T1 x x
T2 x 2x2 1
T3 x 4x3 3x
T4 x 8x4 8x2 1
T5 x 16x5 20x3 5x
T6 x 32x6 48x4 18x2 1
T7 x 64x7 112x5 56x3 7x
T8 x 128x8 256x6 160x4 32x2 1
T9 x 256x9 576x7 432x5 120x3 9x

Tominimizetheamountoferror,ahighervalueofiispreferable.Therefore,forthe
computationsinthisproject,coefficientswerecalculateduptoi=20.Eachcoefficienthasa
weightingfactor,andisthereforecalculatedas:

whereMisthetotalnumberofequallyspacedintervals(29inthecontextofthisproject),xk=
1+kx,andf(xk)isthecorrespondingyvaluefromtheknowndatapointsforthexvaluexk.
ErrorisanimportantconsiderationindeterminingtheaccuracyoftheChebyshevpolynomial
fit.Whileagraphicalcomparisonisuseful,aquantitativeindexisbetterforaprecise
evaluationofthepolynomialsdeviationfromtheoriginaldata.Theerrorisaccountedforina
Chebyshevpolynomialusingaleastsquaresapproximation:

TheresultsoftheChebyshevpolynomialapproximationswerecomputedbyinputtingthex
valuesfromtheoriginaldataintoanExcelspreadsheetthatcalculatedthecorresponding
valuesofTfromi=0toi=20,determinedthefinalcoefficientsaiforeachcomponentofthe
polynomial,andthenprocessedeachxvaluethroughthecomputedChebyshevpolynomial
approximation.Theoutputyvalueswereplottedagainsttheoriginalyvaluesfromthedata
toobtainvisualconfirmationofareasonablyaccuratefit,andthenumericalleastsquares
approximationwasalsocalculatedandtotaledinExcel.

11

OptimizationofReusableBottleDesigns

ScannedX
1
0.931034
0.862069
0.793103
0.724138
0.655172
0.586207
0.517241
0.448276
0.37931
0.310345
0.241379
0.172414
0.103448
0.034483
0.034483
0.103448
0.172414
0.241379
0.310345
0.37931
0.448276
0.517241
0.586207
0.655172
0.724138
0.793103
0.862069
0.931034
1

ScannedY
0
0.015361
0.06298
0.165899
0.356375
0.502304
0.557604
0.612903
0.663594
0.728111
0.75576
0.780338
0.801843
0.817204
0.826421
0.835637
0.860215
0.894009
0.920123
0.956989
0.975422
0.984639
0.989247
1
0.976959
0.923195
0.843318
0.642089
0.278034
0

12

ChebyshevY
0.003410139
0.018950452
0.058415588
0.172772602
0.350792906
0.499653849
0.568477948
0.605233423
0.662198089
0.72703157
0.765101568
0.777960319
0.792886297
0.817860238
0.835491371
0.838918677
0.849588274
0.88693262
0.934941313
0.960886123
0.964321324
0.977459323
1.00435875
1.0020004
0.961256212
0.930149535
0.855207452
0.615661787
0.321757469
0.034586372
TotalError:

Error
1.1629E05
1.28842E05
2.08339E05
4.72464E05
3.11598E05
7.0233E06
0.000118243
5.88224E05
1.94857E06
1.16517E06
8.72649E05
5.65337E06
8.02225E05
4.30648E07
8.22716E05
1.07694E05
0.000112927
5.00752E05
0.000219582
1.51876E05
0.000123225
5.15478E05
0.000228365
4.0016E06
0.000246578
4.83656E05
0.000141359
0.000698398
0.001911742
0.001196217
0.000387943

OptimizedX

OptimizedY

1
0.931034
0.862069
0.793103
0.724138
0.655172
0.586207
0.517241
0.448276
0.37931
0.310345
0.241379
0.172414
0.103448
0.034483
0.034483
0.103448
0.172414
0.241379
0.310345
0.37931
0.448276
0.517241
0.586207
0.655172
0.724138
0.793103
0.862069
0.931034
1

0
0.100707972
0.199139386
0.295684555
0.390172011
0.482931802
0.556081841
0.614476081
0.671346036
0.720335592
0.755539141
0.780552005
0.802729203
0.8251683
0.847085708
0.868559038
0.889615536
0.910143573
0.930359815
0.946743779
0.954251702
0.95165148
0.938987746
0.915468307
0.878956716
0.825838463
0.746727985
0.606536745
0.32078248
0

ChebyshevY
0.020776596
0.11929882
0.189790174
0.301696718
0.388512772
0.479021242
0.561254251
0.615660064
0.665089797
0.720670014
0.762051187
0.780365485
0.795765434
0.82422522
0.854514488
0.871067113
0.88208638
0.905967536
0.937656791
0.952515324
0.946758076
0.944730313
0.948556876
0.921411232
0.864113358
0.829583684
0.762391024
0.574122076
0.378398454
0.050235916
TotalError:

Error
0.000431667
0.00034562
8.74078E05
3.61461E05
2.75307E06
1.52925E05
2.67538E05
1.40182E06
3.91405E05
1.11838E07
4.24067E05
3.47897E08
4.84941E05
8.89401E07
5.51868E05
6.29044E06
5.66882E05
1.74393E05
5.32459E05
3.33107E05
5.61544E05
4.79026E05
9.15683E05
3.53184E05
0.000220325
1.40267E05
0.000245331
0.001050711
0.0033196
0.002523647
0.000614133

13

ScannedDataandChebyshevPolynomial
Model
1
0.9
0.8
0.7
0.6
0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
0

OptimizationofReusableBottleDesigns

0.5

0
ScannedShape

0.5

ChebyshevModel

OptimizedCurveandChebyshevPolynomial
Model
1
0.9
0.8
0.7
0.6
0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
0
1

0.5

0
OptimizedShape

14

0.5

ChebyshevModel

ThegraphsindicatestrongfitsbetweentheChebyshevapproximationsandtheactualdata.
Theapproximationsarenotperfectbecausetheendpointsarenotpreciselyat(1,0)and(1,
0)butadjustmentscanbemadeinthatregard.Intermsoftheerrorapproximation,both
polynomialapproximationshaderrorvaluesoflessthan0.001.Theapproximationfor
scanneddatahadanerrorof0.000387943whiletheapproximationfortheoptimizeddata
hadaslightlyhighererrorof0.00614133.Thismaybeduetothesmoothnessofthe
optimizedcurve;thescanneddatahasmoredistinctturningpointsandthereforemaybe

omodelinteermsofapolynomialthaanthesmootthoptimizedcurvewithffewdistinct
easierto
turningpoints.Polyn
nomialsingeeneralmustggenerateturrningpoints,andsotherrounded
ogenerateth
hanthebum
mpiercurve
curveofftheoptimizzeddesignwouldbemorredifficultto
oftheoriginalscann
neddata.

Concllusions
Theprojjectwassucccessfulingeneratingano
optimizedhaalfcrosssecttiondesignffora
prototyp
peergonomiicgripwaterrbottlegiven
nanidealerggonomiccurrveandanid
dealcost
minimizingcurve.Ho
owever,whilethedesign
nsatisfiestheeconstraintssandobjectivesofthe
designisstillflawedduettothefunctional,cosmetic,and
exercisee,intermsoffutilitythed
compatiibilitylimitattionsofabotttlewithaneeccentricshaapesuchasttheoneprod
ducedinthe
optimizaationprocess.Therefore,furtherrefiinementisneecessarytoccreateadesiignthatis
ergonom
mic,costefficient,andfu
unctionalasaareusablew
waterbottle.
Anideaforsuchabo
ottlewouldb
beanequilatteraltriangleewithround
dedcornersaandslightly
milartothato
of
convexeedge,asshownbelowthegeneralshapeoftheehalfcrossssectionissim
theergo
onomicdesiggnbutprovid
desamoresyymmetric,evvenbottleussingevenlesssmaterial.
Thismayybeamoreusefulrefineementoftheeresultsobtaainedintheoptimization
nprocess.

Inadditiiontodevelo
opinganoptimizedcurvee,Chebyshevvpolynomiallapproximattionswere
alsofound,withaveerysmallerrormargin,fo
orboththeidealergonomiccurvean
ndthe
esecanbefu
urthermodiffiedtofittheedata,howeever,suchthattheymeet
optimizeedcurve.The
alltheteechnicalrequ
uirementssu
uchashavinggendpointsat(1,0)and
d(1,0).Inan
nycase,theyy
providereasonablyaaccurateapp
proximationssforthetwo
osetsofdataa.

15


OptimizationofReusableBottleDesigns

Appendix

16