Optimal Design of 6-DOF Parallel Manipulator with Workspace Maximization using a Constrained Differential Evolution

The applications of parallel robots in various fields are increasing. In this paper, a research on the design optimization of a 6-PSS parallel manipulator for motion simulating is presented. The optimization problem of maximizing the workspace is formulated according to geometric and kinematic analysis. In particular, the workspace is a totally flexible workspace with 6 degrees-of-freedom (DOF). To maximize the workspace of the 6-PSS parallel robot, we investigated the differential evolution algorithm (DE), and the genetic algorithm (GA) is also adopted as a comparison. Computational results show DE algorithm outperforms GA algorithm at about 48.3% in optimal solution providing and 9.3% in time consuming.