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Evolutionary design of modular robotic arms

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 May 2008

O. Chocron
O. Chocron*
Affiliation:
Laboratorie de recherche en mécatronique, Ecole nationale d'ingénieurs de Brest, Technopôle Brest-Iroise, CS 73822 Brest Cedex 3, France
*
*Corresponding author. E-mail: chocron@enib.fr
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Summary

This paper proposes a method for task based design of modular serial robotic arms using evolutionary algorithms (EA). We introduce a 3D kinematics and a global optimization for both topology and configuration from task specifications. The search features revolute as well as prismatic joints and any number of DOF to build up a solution without using any design knowledge. A study of the evolution dynamics gives some keys to set evolution parameters that enable artificial evolution. An adapted algorithm dealing with the topology/configuration search tradeoff is proposed, descibed, and discussed. Illustrations of the algorithms results are given and conclusions are drawn from their analysis. Perspectives of this work are given, extending its reach to control and complex system design.

Keywords

Modular robotsTask-based designKinematic synthesisEvolutionary optimization
Type
Article
Information
Robotica , Volume 26 , Issue 3 , May 2008 , pp. 323 - 330
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2007

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