Abstract
The purpose of this paper is creating a method to determine the locations of components applying Genetic Programming (GP) – one of evolutionary computation algorithm which is often applied to solve symbolic regression problems. In the aircraft conceptual design, first, mission requirements are given. Secondly, the parameters of main components such as wing, tail, fuselage and engine are determined to meet these requirements. Finally, the locations of the components are fixed considering the center of gravity, stability and gear layout. Then an initial three-dimensional view is drawn. The wings and the gear locations are mainly determined by the designers' sense based on their experience as there is no well-defined method during the preliminary phase. Therefore, GP is applied to the problem relating to the aircraft conceptual design and the functions between the locations of components and constraints such as stability and gear layout are obtained. These results indicated potential abilities of GP to create a model which would help the aircraft designer to determine the locations of the components during the design process.
