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• numerical integration with designs optimized via miniMax (mM) criterion is developed. • mM designs with standard metric are nonuniform which may cause biased integration. • the proposed periodic metric ensures point uniformity and unbiased robust integration. • efficient construction algorithm for mM designs (standard or periodic) is developed. The selection of points for numerical integration of the Monte Carlo type, largely used in analysis of engineering problems, is developed. It is achieved by modification of the metric in the minimax optimality criterion. The standard minimax criterion ensures the design exhibits good space-filling property and therefore reduces the variance of the estimator of the integral. We, however, show that the points are not selected with the same probability over the space of sampling probabilities: some regions are over- or under-sampled when designs are generated repetitively. This violation of statistical uniformity may lead to systematically biased integral estimators. We propose that periodic metric be considered for calculation of the minimax distance. Such periodic minimax criterion provides statistically uniform designs leading to unbiased integration results and also low estimator variance due to retained space-filling property. These conclusions are demonstrated by examples integrating analytical functions. The designs are constructed by two different algorithms: (i) a new time-stepping algorithm resembling a damped system of attracted particles developed here, and (ii) the heuristic swapping of coordinates. The designs constructed by the time-stepping algorithm are attached to the paper as a supplementary material. The computer code for construction of the designs is attached too. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Uniform distribution of points in a unit hypercube. • Optimal Design of Experiments for computationally intensive models. • The analogy to a dynamical system of repulsive particles in periodic space is exploited. A method is proposed for the construction of uniformly distributed point sets within a design domain using an analogy to a dynamical system of interacting particles. The possibility of viewing various distance-based optimality criteria as formulas representing the potential energy of a system of charged particles is discussed. The potential energy is employed in deriving the equations of motion of the particles. The particles are either attracted or repelled and dissipative dynamical systems can be simulated to achieve optimal and near-optimal arrangements of points. The design domain is set up as an N var -dimensional unit hypercube, with N var being the number of variables (factors). The number of points is equal to the number of simulations (levels). The periodicity assumption of the design domain is shown to be an elegant way to obtain statistically uniform coverage of the design domain. The ϕ p criterion, which is a generalization of the Maximin criterion, is selected in order to demonstrate its analogy with an N-body system. This criterion guarantees that the points are spread uniformly within the design domain. The solution to such an N-body system is presented. The obtained designs are shown to outperform the existing optimal designs in various types of applications: multidimensional numerical integration, statistical exploration of computer models, reliability analyses of engineering systems, and screenings or exploratory designs for the global optimization/minimization of functions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]