Human–machine teaming for leisure motorboat layout design

Space utilization is a key driver for yacht design. Larger hulls increase the cost of the yacht substantially, and so space is always at a premium. The designs should feel spacious and luxurious, making the best use of the available volume while also conforming to standard engineering constraints such as safety and efficiency. To maximize the useful space, genetic algorithms have been utilized to design the layout with the aim of supporting the concept design process. Although a number of approaches have been developed, integrating these tools within the design process requires a substantial effort in human–machine teaming. This is at least in part due to the layout optimization problem being trivial in a general sense of providing effective space utilization, but the general layouts produced do not resonate with the designers as they do not conform to a brand often developed over decades. Essentially, does the yacht feel like other designs by the same company to a human designer? This article explores these two aspects of integrating an AI tool into a traditional design studio, generating concepts that resonate with the industrial designers while conforming to engineering constraints. It is shown that this only requires two objectives to achieve, in contrast to other approaches that use a large number of constraints or objectives to push the layout into a specific part of the design space. The resulting AI layout engineer is integrated into the team as the designs are competitive with those developed by the design team.