Closed-loop AI achieves certifiable engineering design

Abstract

Agentic AI has automated parts of scientific discovery, including paper generation, expert-level coding, therapeutic proposal, and autonomous experimentation. Complex physical engineering design remains a gap, because candidates must satisfy simultaneous constraints in fluid dynamics, solid mechanics, and structural stability. We introduce The AI Engineer, an agentic framework that couples large language models (LLMs) to deterministic engineering backends in a closed loop: natural-language requirements are converted into design-domain geometry and mesh; topology is optimized with bi-directional evolutionary structural optimization (BESO) coupled to the CalculiX solver; and member sizes are refined with particle swarm optimization (PSO) coupled to Zwind under offshore aero-hydro-servo-elastic load cases. To explore many designs without per-candidate certification cost, an Automated Reviewer scores each candidate on five dimensions (capacity, steel intensity, unit cost, constructability, and fatigue life) using piecewise-linear functions calibrated on 11 real floating-wind projects. Search terminates only when a candidate reaches a composite score $S \ge 85$ (grade A) with no subscore below 60. We validated this gate by submitting the top-scoring design to the China Classification Society (CCS) for Approval in Principle (AIP), which it passed; AIP is thus an external check that the reviewer tracks professional judgment, not the daily objective. The certified design outperforms the human-optimized TuQiang baseline, reducing steel mass and unit capital cost by 8.1% each while meeting all AIP criteria. This verification-closed regime, in which every proposal is judged by deterministic physics and codified limit states, distinguishes The AI Engineer from open-ended generative systems. Remaining limits include detailed design and fabrication-hard constraints.