Cooperative body–brain coevolutionary synthesis of mechatronic systems

To support the concurrent design processes of mechatronic subsystems, unified mechatronics modeling and cooperative body–brain coevolutionary synthesis are developed. In this paper, both body-passive physical systems and brain-active control systems can be represented using the bond graph paradigm. Bond graphs are combined with genetic programming to evolve low-level building blocks into systems with high-level functionalities including both topological configurations and parameter settings. Design spaces of coadapted mechatronic subsystems are automatically explored in parallel for overall design optimality. A quarter-car suspension system case study is provided. Compared with conventional design methods, semiactive suspension designs with more creativity and flexibility are achieved through this approach.