Systematic optimal design procedures for the Gough-Stewart platform used as motion simulators

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present systematic optimal design procedures for the Gough-Stewart platforms used as engineering motion simulators. Design/methodology/approach – Three systematic optimal design procedures are proposed to solve the engineering design problems for the Gough-Stewart platform used as motion simulators. In these systematic optimal design procedures, two contradicting design optimality criteria with good representations of performances of the Gough-Stewart platforms are chosen as the objective functions. In addition, the two objective function optimization problems are solved by using the multi-objective evolutionary algorithms. Findings – In the systematic optimal design procedures, multiple compromised design solutions are found by using Elitist Non-Dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm version II in the primary design stage, and many candidates can be used in the secondary design stage for higher decisions. Two higher decision methods have been presented to choose the final solutions. Originality/value – This paper proposes three systematic optimal design procedures to solve the practical design problems of the Gough-Stewart platforms used as motion simulators, which are very important for the engineering designers.