  This paper describes the development of an efficient algorithm for the
optimization of fluid power circuits. The algorithm is based around the
concepts of Tabu search, where different timescale memory cycles are used as a
metaheuristic to guide a hill climbing search method out of local optima and
locate the globally optimum solution. Results are presented which illustrate
the effectiveness of the method on mathematical test functions. In addition to
these test functions, some results are presented for real problems in hydraulic
circuit design by linking the method to the Bathfp dynamic simulation software.
In one such example the solutions obtained are compared to those found using
simple steady state calculations.
