Abstract. In this work, a multi-objective optimization design method is proposed based on principal component analysis (PCA) and a neural network to obtain a mechanism's optimal comprehensive performance. First,
multi-objective optimization mathematical modeling, including design
parameters, objective functions, and constraint functions, is established.
Second, the sample data are obtained through the design of the experiment
(DOE) and are then standardized to eliminate the adverse effects of a
non-uniform dimension of objective functions. Third, the first k principal components are established for p performance indices (k<p) using the
variance-based PCA method, and then the factor analysis method is employed
to define its physical meaning. Fourth, the overall comprehensive
performance evaluation index is established by objectively determining
weight factors. Finally, the computational cost of the modeling is improved
by combining the neural network and a particle swarm optimization (PSO)
algorithm. Dimensional synthesis of a Sprint (3RPS) parallel manipulator (PM) is taken as a case study to implement the proposed method, and the
optimization results are verified by a comprehensive performance comparison of robots before and after optimization.