Model Browser User's Guide

Optimal Designs

Choose an optimal design by clicking the  button in the toolbar, or choose Design -> Optimal.

Optimal designs are best for cases with high system knowledge, where previous studies have given confidence on the best type of model to be fitted, and the constraints of the system are well understood.

The optimal designs in the Design Editor are formed using the following process:

• An initial starting design is chosen at random from a set of defined candidate points.
• m additional points are added to the design, either optimally or at random. These points are chosen from the candidate set.
• m points are deleted from the design, either optimally or at random.
• If the resulting design is better than the original, it is kept.

This process is repeated until either (a) the maximum number of iterations is exceeded or (b) a certain number of iterations has occurred without an appreciable change in the optimality value for the design.

The Optimal Design dialog consists of several tabs that contain the settings for three main aspects of the design:

• Starting point and number of points in the design
• Candidate set of points from which the design points are chosen
• Options for the algorithm that is used to generate the points

Starting the Design Editor

Start Point Tab