Parametric reconfiguration improvement in non-iterative concurrent mechatronic design using an evolutionary-based approach

Parametric reconfiguration plays a key role in non-iterative concurrent design of mechatronic systems. This is because it allows the designer to select, among different competitive solutions, the most suitable without sacrificing sub-optimal characteristics. This paper presents a method based on an evolutionary algorithm to improve the parametric reconfiguration feature in the optimal design of a continuously variable transmission and a five-bar parallel robot. The approach considers a solution-diversity mechanism coupled with a memory of those sub-optimal solutions found during the process. Furthermore, a constraint-handling mechanism is added to bias the search to the feasible region of the search space. Differential Evolution is utilized as the search algorithm. The results obtained in a set of five experiments performed per each mechatronic system show the effectiveness of the proposed approach.