The hydraulic cylinder is used for actuating the roller-link type rotating floodgate which controls the volume of water in the reservoir. The locating points of hydraulic cylinder are restricted to the limited space and determined to minimize the cylinder force necessary for actuating the floodgate. Generally, the head end point of cylinder is fixed at underground and the rod end point of cylinder is connected to the support link. Therefore there exist three design variables to be determined to minimize the cylinder force within the rotating range of floodgate. First, the mathematical model of the roller-link type rotating floodgate is derived to find the cylinder force corresponding to the floodgate angle. Then, the optimal locating point of hydraulic cylinder is searched using the complex method that is one kind of constrained direct search method.