Syed Faisal – MS Thesis Abstract
Supervising Professor: Panayiotis S. Shiakolas
Title: A VIRTUAL PROTOTYPING ENVIRONMENT FOR THE OPTIMUM DESIGN OF MECHANICAL SYSTEMS USING DADS AND GENETIC ALGORITHMS
In this study the concept of the design of mechanical systems, especially robots by the automatic selection of components from a library of available components is presented. This approach requires the user to create a Denavit-Hartenberg parameter file representing a robot configuration and defining the desired trajectory. A dynamic analysis package (DADS) is used to create and analyze the model. The results of the analysis are used by another program to evaluate a fitness value. This fitness value is then passed to the genetic algorithm (GA) used as an optimization tool. An iteration is established and continues until a specified convergence criteria is met. The approach has been applied in the selection of geometric characteristics for different robotic manipulators with the objective being to minimize the torque. It is also applied to synthesize certain other mechanical systems like the four-bar linkage. Results demonstrating the success and promise of this approach are presented.