Abstract
Flexible robotic cells are used to produce standardized items at a high production speed. In this study, the scheduling problem of a flexible robotic cell is considered. Machines are identical and parallel. In the cell, there is an input and an output buffer, wherein the unprocessed and the finished items are kept, respectively. There is a robot performing the loading/unloading operations of the machines and transporting the items. The system repeats a cycle in its long run. It is assumed that each machine processes one part in each cycle. The cycle time depends on the order of the actions. Therefore, determining the order of the actions to minimize the cycle time is an optimization problem. A new mathematical model is presented to solve the problem, and as an alternative, a simulated annealing algorithm is developed for large-size problems. In the simulated annealing algorithm, the objective function value of a given solution is computed by solving a linear programming model which is the first case in the literature to the best of our knowledge. Several numerical examples are solved using the proposed methods, and their performances are evaluated.
Highlights
Cell manufacturing indicates a connective system among product-oriented and process-oriented systems
In flexible robotic cell (FRC), the computer numerical control (CNC) machines perform manufacturing processes, and the robot transports the items from the input buffer to the machines, loads/unloads the CNC machines, and transports the items to the output buffer
Using traveling salesman problem (TSP)’s network flow modeling approach, a novel mathematical model is proposed for solving the cyclic scheduling problem of FRCs with identical and parallel
Summary
Cell manufacturing indicates a connective system among product-oriented and process-oriented systems. Jolai et al. studied an FRC scheduling problem with identical part types, machines are flexible and able to swap They determined all one-unit cycle times and proposed a new sequence of robot movements that dominates all robot move cycles. Foumani et al. focused on maximizing the throughput rate of FRC problems including multi-function robotic cells, and in another study, they considered the scheduling problem of n-unit production in the FRC and found that one-unit cycles dominate the rest. They considered an FRC including two machines with three different scenarios of inspections including in-process and postprocess inspection, the cell with a multi-function robot, and the linear layout FRC.. 1 if activity b is performed after activity a by the robot otherwise tab: the completion time of activity b when it is performed just after activity a, it is zero if activity b is not performed just after activity a; wab: the time that the robot waits before starting activity b when it is performed just after activity a, it is zero if activity b is not performed just after activity a
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