Optimal sheet metal fixture locating layout by combining radial basis function neural network and bat algorithm

Abstract

Considering that sheet metal part has the properties of thin wall, low rigidity, easy to deform, and difficult to locate, this article proposes a new approach to optimizing sheet metal fixture locating layout by combining radial basis function neural network and bat algorithm. First, taking fixture locating layout as design variables based on the “ N -2-1” locating principle, this article generates limited training and testing sample sets by Latin hypercube sampling and finite element analysis. Second, the radial basis function neural network prediction model with the description of the nonlinear mapping relationship between the fixture locating layout and the corresponding sheet metal deformation is constructed through learning from the training sample sets. Third, bat algorithm is applied to search the optimal layout of the “ N ” fixture locators for the minimum sheet metal deformation. Finally, two case studies are presented to demonstrate the optimization procedure and the effectiveness of the proposed method.