A String-Based Representation and Crossover Operator for Evolutionary Design of Dynamical Mechanisms

Robots would perform better when their mechanical structure is specifically designed for their designated task, for instance by adding spring mechanisms. However, designing such mechanisms, which match the dynamics of the robot with the task, is hard and time consuming. To assist designers, a platfo...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:IEEE robotics and automation letters 2018-07, Vol.3 (3), p.1600-1607
Main Authors: Kuppens, P. Reinier, Wolfslag, Wouter J.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Computer simulation
Crossovers
Design
dynamics
Evolutionary algorithms
Fasteners
Genetic algorithms
Gravity
Kinematics
Mechanism design
Operators
optimal control
optimization
Representations
Robots
Springs
Straight lines
Strings
Task analysis
Topology
Topology optimization
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Robots would perform better when their mechanical structure is specifically designed for their designated task, for instance by adding spring mechanisms. However, designing such mechanisms, which match the dynamics of the robot with the task, is hard and time consuming. To assist designers, a platform that automatically designs dynamical mechanisms is needed. This letter introduces a novel string-based representation for mechanisms, including evolutionary operators, that allows an evolutionary algorithm to automatically design dynamical mechanisms for a designated task. The mechanism representation allows simultaneous optimization of topology and parameters. Simulation experiments investigate various algorithms to obtain best optimization performance. We show the efficacy of the representation, operators, and evolutionary algorithm by designing mechanisms that track straight lines and ellipses by virtue of both their kinematic and dynamic properties.
ISSN:2377-3766
2377-3766
DOI:10.1109/LRA.2018.2800102