Robust optimization of an electromechanical linear actuator under experimental-budget constraints

Đurić, Mario (author), Bračun, Drago (author), Jenko, Marjan (author)

The design optimization of electromechanical linear actuators (EMLAs) is challenged by coupled tribological, thermal, and dynamic effects. Such interactions can violate the additivity assumptions of compact orthogonal designs. Factor ranking may become unreliable when residual variance includes non-additive contributions rather than stochastic noise alone. This study presents an Extended Orthogonal Experimental Matrix (E-OEM) framework for robust factor screening under experimental-budget constraints. It preserves the reduced effort of an orthogonal design while using a latent allocation term to retain structured non-additive variation that would otherwise be treated as residual error. It combines compact experimentation, fitted probability distributions, Monte Carlo simulation, and weighted multi-criteria ranking under push force, robustness, and cost targets. The framework is demonstrated on 90 automotive EMLAs considering lubricant type, drive frequency, and operating temperature. E-OEM was benchmarked against the full-factorial experiment (27 combinations, 810 push-force measurements). Under the selected weighting strategy, both E-OEM and the benchmark identified the same nominal optimum (590 Hz, +25 °C, Addinol lubricant), with a measured push force of 77.32 ± 2.05 N (1.01% deviation from the prediction). The results show that E-OEM provides an efficient screening and decision-support approach for actuator design when full-factorial testing is constrained by time and cost.

• Language: English
• Keywords: electromechanical linear actuator, robust design, design of experiments, push-force variability, latent allocation term, Monte Carlo simulation, multi-criteria decision-ranking, Taguchi orthogonal array
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: FS - Faculty of Mechanical Engineering
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Year: 2026
• Number of pages: 31 str.
• Numbering: Vol. 15, issue 7, art. 401
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-185016
• UDC: 621.8
• ISSN on article: 2076-0825
• DOI: 10.3390/act15070401
• COBISS.SI-ID: 285468675
• Publication date in RUL: 20.07.2026

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Actuators
• Shortened title: Actuators
• Publisher: MDPI
• ISSN: 2076-0825
• COBISS.SI-ID: 522943513

Licences

• License: CC BY 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Description: This is the standard Creative Commons license that gives others maximum freedom to do what they want with the work as long as they credit the author.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Keywords: elektromehanski linearni aktuator, robustni dizajn, načrtovani eksperimenti, variabilnost potisne sile, latentni faktor, Monte Carlo simulacija, multikriterijsko optimiranje, Taguchi ortogonalna matrika

Projects

• Funder: ARIS - Slovenian Research and Innovation Agency
• Project number: P2-0270
• Name: Proizvodni sistemi, laserske tehnologije in spajanje materialov