Taking the non-contact shape control of a beam bonded with PLZT photostrictive actuators on its surface as an object
a control method was proposed by combining the structural topology optimization and hierarchical genetic algorithms. In this method
the topological distribution of photostrictive actuators and the light intensity were chosen as design variables
and the shape errors between the desired shape and the achieved shape of beam bonded with PLZT photostrictive actuators were taken as the fitness function. The distribution of PLZT photostrictive actuators and the light intensity were optimized by using structural topology optimization
hierarchical genetic algorithms and finite element method. The performance of the presented method for shape control was assessed in comparison with that of the conventional genetic algorithm. The results demonstrate that the speed of the evolution of the presented method has been improved by more than 91% and the errors between the desired shape and the achieved shape have been reduced by over 76% compared with the conventional genetic algorithm.