A real‐coded genetic optimal kinematic design of a Stewart fine tuning platform for a large radio telescope

Abstract

AbstractA real‐coded genetic design methodology for an optimal kinematic Stewart platform is presented in this article. The Jacobian matrix connecting the dexterity performance of the parallel platform is first deduced, and then the condition number of Jacobian matrix is employed as the objective function to implement the optimal kinematic design of Stewart fine tuning platform for a large spherical radio telescope. A niched‐penalty approach is used to transform this optimal kinematic design problem to an unconstrained one, and a niching technique and the dynamic mutation operator are applied. A kinematic accuracy comparison of the genetically designed Stewart fine tuning platform with the quasi‐Newtonian designed platform is made. The comparison results have shown that the kinematic accuracy of the genetically designed Stewart fine tuning platform has a much higher accuracy and compact structure than that of the quasi‐Newtonian designed platform, which guarantees the implementation of high accuracy requirement of trajectory tracking and reduces the disturbance of random wind for large radio telescopes. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.