Implementation of bi-directional searching Chemical Reaction Optimization (CRO) algorithm towards achieving cutting tool indexing time minimization in Automatic Tool Changer(ATC)

Abstract

Determining the optimum cutting tool positions in a tool magazine is a challenging task which involves a huge searching space. Reduction of manufacturing time even by nanoseconds will highly be beneficial for all process industries. The prime focus of this research work is to reduce the total turret or tool indexing time in Automatic Tool Changer (ATC) which in turn curtails the idle non-cutting time of the bi-directional turret or tool magazine in a CNC machine. This variant of optimization problem falls under the category of non-deterministic hard polynomial (NP-hard) problem. Chemical Reaction Optimization (CRO) algorithm is proposed to determine the near optimal/global optimal solution with lesser computational cost. Five benchmark case studies are considered in this work to assess the robustness of the proposed algorithm. From the results, it is evident that the proposed algorithm yields solutions which matches or exceeds with the solution quality.